


The Blossom in the Snow

by QueenOfTheDreamers (QueenOfDreamers)



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Balia, Bane/Talia - Freeform, F/M, Training, league of shadows, pre-DKR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-27 03:38:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 34,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12572904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfDreamers/pseuds/QueenOfTheDreamers
Summary: In the League of Shadows, a young Talia al Ghul proves herself to be fit for only one sparring partner - Bane. But what happens when the feel of hot breath on damp skin, the intertwining of finely honed sinew, proves to be too much to bear? The evolution from protectorship to rivalry, and onward to something else... as unlikely and miraculous as a blossom in the snow.Re-upload.





	1. Chapter 1

**Sinew**

* * *

"That's enough, Talia."

Ra's al Ghul spoke to his daughter from the corner of the dark training room, stepping into the little stream of light that came from the small window.

Talia pulled herself off of the young male initiate with whom she was training. He was weak, she thought ruefully to herself. Talia had overpowered him so quickly and effectively that it had not been helpful to either of them. She'd gotten no useful fighting practice from the experience of beating the young man into oblivion.

She knew her father was hesitant to pair her with his best fighters. As much as Ra's al Ghul wanted his daughter Talia to be tough and strong, he disliked seeing her in the infirmary with a dislocated shoulder. That had happened months ago, though, Talia thought with a sigh. Since then, Ra's had made Talia practice with opponents far weaker than she, and Talia did not feel she was getting much out of her training anymore.

Later that evening, Ra's al Ghul sent for Talia, and she cleaned herself up enough to go see him. She stepped into the quiet room that held a dining table big enough for twenty, which looked out upon a courtyard painted by the orange and purple of the setting sun.

"Father," she nodded as she entered, folding her hands demurely in front of her and waiting for him to speak.

Ra's jumped straight to his reason for meeting with Talia. He was not one for small talk. "Your shoulder appears to have healed enough for you to resume intense training," he said, clasping his hands behind his back. Talia nodded again, pleased by his words. But then he continued, "Nonetheless, I am hesitant to see you suffer another serious injury. You need a sparring partner who will challenge you. One who will make you stronger. Yet he must know when to stop."

Talia stood silent before her father, not knowing quite how to respond to his words. Finally, she asked, "Do you have someone in mind?"

"I do." Ra's coursed his fingertips over the polished wood of the dining table. "Bane."

Talia felt her eyes go wide. Bane? She was to fight with him?

Talia had been ten years old when she had escaped from the Pit. Less than a year later, her father had retrieved Bane and had taken him into the League of Shadows, grateful for the man's devotion to protecting his daughter. But over the past six years, Ra's had been careful to keep a distance between Bane and Talia, allowing them only minimal contact and keeping a close eye on their interactions. He'd once explained his caution to Talia. Bane was too fierce and ferocious to be associated with a young girl. It wasn't good for Bane's training, and it wasn't good for Talia's well-being.

But Talia knew better. She knew that Bane had been her protector, her guardian, her only friend... for years. Even after he was fitted with a complicated mask to protect his scarred face and ease his pain, Talia knew no fear of him. She knew, instead, that the mask was there because of her. He'd endured indescribable suffering and had very nearly died, all for her. She lamented that her father kept her from him, for each time she saw Bane in passing, all she wanted to do was throw her arms around his waist and properly express her gratitude.

So, now, hearing that she was to be training with him, Talia's heart soared. She would see him every day. They would talk, they would eat together. Why the sudden change of heart by her father?

"Bane is the only one who cares enough to see that you train properly without getting seriously injured," Ra's al Ghul explained, answering Talia's unasked question. "You start with him in the morning."

Talia suppressed a wide grin. "Thank you, Father," she said softly. Ra's nodded and dismissed Talia, and she headed back to her room, which was separated from the male initiates' quarters for modesty.

She lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling above her, the silver light of the moon coming in milky and soft through the high window. She shut her eyes, trying to drift off to sleep, but her mind was plagued with his image. When at last Talia fell asleep, her dreams were of the past. Memories of the hellish life they'd known filled her sleep.

_"_ _Talia," Bane said gently, pulling shut the cell door behind him, "I don't want you sleeping by yourself in here anymore."_

_Ten-year-old Talia blinked blankly at him, searching his sea-foam green eyes. "Why not?" she asked, setting the Arabic text she was reading upon her lice-infested blanket._

_Bane lowered his pale eyes and sighed. He was only twenty-five years of age, but he looked as ancient as the oldest prisoner in the Pit at the moment. His downward gaze appeared pained and conflicted._

_"_ _Someday you will understand more clearly," he began. "There are many reasons why a young girl ought not to be surrounded by lonely men."_

_Talia furrowed her brows and stared at Bane. "I'm safe with you, though, aren't I?" she asked, for his company was the only reassurance she had known in the months since her mother's death. She'd known of Bane for years, for his cell had been directly across from the one Talia had shared with her mother. On the day of her mother's murder by a ferocious mob, it had been Bane who had whisked Talia away from the chaos. Since that day, he had been the only one she trusted in the entire world._

_"_ _Of course you are safe with me," Bane nodded. "I will never hurt you. I will always keep you safe, Talia. That's why I don't want you alone, where I can't protect you."_

_Talia gave him a warm smile. That night would be the first of many in which she fell asleep cradled in Bane's arms, his steady breath and warm body lulling her into peaceful slumber. As tumultuous as life in the Pit was, the sleep Talia received enveloped in Bane's arms was the best she'd ever known. In the years since her rescue, beds had proven inhospitable. Never again had Talia slept as deeply as she had in Bane's embrace._

_It was the only place she felt truly safe._

"Good morning, Talia."

Bane was beefier than Talia remembered him being. When they'd lived in the Pit, he had been strong, but terribly lean as a result of hunger. It didn't help that he often gave half of his food to Talia every day. He was thin no more, though; now his thick muscles flexed with every step as he stalked slowly into the training room. Talia stood before him, clad in a cotton tunic and loose fitting pants. Bane wore more tightly fitted trousers, and his torso was bare except for the sturdy brace that kept his back straight and working. Talia eyed his back brace with a twinge of regret. His injuries had all happened while he helped her escape. The mask, the braces, the scars – they were all Talia's burden to bear.

And, yet, Bane did not look too terribly worse for the wear overall. He'd built himself up to a muscular mass of strength, formidable and intimidating. The last time Talia had seen Bane, two weeks earlier as she'd walked back to her room from training, he'd had a tunic on. His sea-foam green eyes had wrinkled in such a way that Talia knew he was smiling at her under the mask. He had always seemed happy to see Talia, though their conversations had been brief and shallow over the past six years.

"Your father tells me that you need a stronger partner. Have you grown that strong, little one?" Bane asked, his eyes twinkling in the slivers of light that wormed their way into the room. His voice was mechanical, filtered through the mask on his face. It was very different from how Talia remembered him sounding when he'd spoken to her years before. Nonetheless, the sound of his new voice sent shivers down her spine.

Talia grinned. "I'm fearsome, all right," she laughed. "I don't want you to let me win."

"And I do not wish to break all the bones in your body," Bane replied. "We shall gauge one another and take it from there. I want you to try your hardest today. Do not fear injuring me."

It was almost a taunt, a firm doubt that she'd be able to hurt him even if she tried. Talia's lips flattened into a line and her eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Let's just see," she said, annoyed. Bane's eyes twinkled again. He'd always loved to tease her, even when she'd been a child in the Pit. "Ready?" she asked, and Bane nodded, steeling himself for her attack.

Talia charged, flinging her leg up diagonally to aim a kick at Bane's chest. He reacted more quickly than she thought possible, deflecting her kick in such a way that she tumbled to the floor. She rose immediately, drawing her fist back for a punch. Bane grasped her wrist and thrust her arm away from him. Talia knew he could have snapped her wrist and broken it easily, but instead he merely pushed her away.

Irritated that he was holding back, Talia puffed out air and tried again. She rushed him again, intending to punch his pectoral muscle, but once more Bane grabbed her wrist. His grip was more painful this time, and Talia grunted. He bent down to push her with his shoulder, and Talia struggled to maintain her balance. As she wobbled, Bane swept his strong arm behind her and tripped her up so that she toppled to the ground. Before she could rise off of her back, Bane was atop her, his arms ensnaring hers in a lock. Talia clasped her legs around his waist tightly and squeezed hard to force him to release her. Bane grunted but managed to disentangle himself from her body. He pinned her to the ground and thrust her wrists above her head. His knee pressed firmly on Talia's thighs. She struggled against him, trying desperately to wrench her wrists from the tight grip of his beefy hands. She squirmed and tried to pull free from his leg. It was to no avail. Bane was the strongest man she'd ever fought, and he was overwhelming her with brute force. She felt the ties come loose from her hair, and her dark curls surrounded her face as she thrashed back and forth.

Bane stared down at Talia, and when she looked back up at him, she expected to see the same knowing twinkle that his eyes had held earlier. She giggled as she scrapped against him, finally meeting his gaze. Her laughter fell silent when she saw the burn in his pale eyes. His breath came quick and shallow through the mask, much quicker than Talia would have thought necessary given how little he'd exerted himself. His eyes seared hers with a searching fear. Talia frowned and stopped struggling.

"What's wrong?" she asked, confused when Bane suddenly pulled himself off of her body and stood.

Bane cleared his throat and turned away from Talia. "I… do not think I am the best sparring partner for you, Talia."

Talia heaved herself to her feet, silently agreeing with him based on how sore he'd managed to make her with just a few moves.

"I'll get stronger, Bane," she promised. "You have to keep challenging me. Let's go again."

"No." Bane's voice was firm and unyielding, as it had been when he'd scolded her as a child. He put his hands on his hips and stared at the ground, shaking his head.

"I know you don't want to hurt me," Talia said softly, "but you're the best one to help me become a better fighter."

"You don't understand, Talia." She could hear the agony in his voice, and he raised his gaze to the small window, staring intently at the world outside.

Talia narrowed her eyes and crinkled her brow. She crossed her arms angrily. "Well, what's wrong, then?" she asked accusatorily. She stared at Bane and saw how his chest heaved - whether from exertion or emotion, she could not say.

His muscles were enormous; Talia had never seen a man built the way Bane was. She'd fought dozens of initiates over the last three years of her training, some female but most of them men. She had never encountered a sparring partner who could take her down with such ease. She certainly had never fought anyone who seemed to know her so well, who seemed to anticipate her moves as though their fight was an expertly played game of chess. Now, she took a moment to survey Bane's physique and realized she had never fought anyone so handsome.

Sure, the mask obscured his face, and Talia knew his once-chiseled features were ruined beneath the contraption. But the way his eyes shone with the color of the sea, the way his body stood as solid as a stone wall, the way his muscles rippled when he fought…

Talia felt a strange and foreign warmth pulse throughout her body, intensifying when she thought back to how he'd stared so intensely at her as he pinned her down. Usually, when Talia was pinned down by an opponent, she felt nothing but anger and motivation to try harder. But when she'd seen the blistering heat in Bane's eyes, she had been pushed to complete submission. Her tensed muscles had eased beneath his touch. She had felt a bit as though she were melting inside, completely acquiescent to his gaze and touch. She'd never felt that way about an opponent before, and it was strange and new in a slightly frightening way.

She wondered what Bane had been feeling while he'd been atop her, looking down at her struggling, giggling form. Perhaps, Talia thought, Bane was not comfortable fighting her, the one for whom he'd cared and the one he'd sworn to protect.

"I'm no longer a child, Bane," Talia said indignantly, and Bane shut his eyes as he nodded slowly.

"I can see that," he replied, and suddenly Talia understood.

It had been too close, too intimate, for him to touch her that way. They had slept with their bodies entangled, but that had been when he was protecting her. He'd been keeping her warm, keeping her safe. Now that she was a young woman and he a man, it was no longer appropriate to be so familiar. The thought of such distance between herself and her former guardian made Talia abruptly quite sad. She had hoped that these fights would mean their reconnection. Instead, she now feared that they would mean the demise of her closeness with Bane.

Talia's sapphire blue eyes welled with thick tears, and she swiped angrily at them.

"My father wanted you to fight with me," she prompted him, "because he thought that would be best."

"I think he was mistaken," Bane insisted, folding his arms over his substantial chest and turned away from her. " _This_ … this arrangement, Talia, is not suitable."

"You don't wish to be around me," Talia accused, nodding her head knowingly. Bane whirled to face Talia, his arms flying to form tight fists at his sides. His eyes flashed with fury.

"I want nothing more than to be near you, Talia," he assured her, "but not like this. Not with limbs tangled, bodies pressed against each other…" He sighed shakily and shook his head no as if convincing himself as much as her.

"There was a time when our bodies rested against one another every night," Talia reminded him quietly, taking a step to close the gap between them and pressed her palm to his trembling chest. Bane flinched beneath her touch as if she'd burned him, and Talia hesitantly pulled her hand from him. "Do you not remember nights where you kept me warm and shared a cot with me?"

"You were a  _child_ , Talia," Bane said firmly. "It's different now."

"It doesn't have to be," Talia insisted, staring into his eyes. "Why can't you be my friend, my protector, once more?"

Bane shook his head resolutely and took another quivering breath that rattled through the mask. When he spoke, his words echoed the past. "Someday you will understand more clearly. There are many reasons why a young woman should not be so near a man who cares for her."

He stepped backwards, away from Talia, leaving her feeling confused and rejected in the middle of the training room. He turned away and continued walking to the door.

"This was a mistake," he contended again. "In the morning, I shall speak with your father and help him find you a more suitable opponent."

The tears that had welled in Talia's eyes spilled over and tumbled silently down her cheeks. As the door closed behind Bane, she wanted to scream in frustration. Her hopes of a happy reunion with her old friend had been dashed, ruined by her new, womanly figure that seemed to bring Bane such discomfort. She longed in that instant to be a child again, so that he would be her friend once more.

As she tossed and turned in her bed that night, Talia growled with anger. She was more cross with Bane now that she'd had time to ponder the situation. There had to be a way to convince him to continue fighting her, even if it meant overcoming a big of awkwardness. She  _needed_  to be near him. That had become more evident than ever today.

Talia rose from her bed and wrapped a kimono-style silk robe around her lean frame. She slipped silently from her room and shut the door softly behind her. She crept down the hallway as surreptitiously as she could, the pale moonlight illuminating her path toward the men's dormitories.

She had to convince Bane to change his mind before he met with her father in the morning.

* * *

**Sweet Dreams**

* * *

_Talia shivered a bit beneath the tattered, thin blanket. The nights in this place could become devastatingly cold, as icy air seeped in from the opening above. Even at the hottest part of the day, it was dank and chilly in the Pit, for it was underground._

_Right now, Talia could not get warm. She had fallen asleep alone on the cot while Bane stayed up reading by the light of a feeble candle. Now, though, Talia had been awakened by the cold, and her lean frame shook on the cot. She whimpered quietly and looked across the small cell to where Bane sat, cross-legged in the corner with a heavy tome upon his lap._

_"_ _What's wrong?" he asked softly, looking up and peering through the dim light of his dying candle._

_"_ _I'm cold," Talia answered simply. "C-can't sleep."_

_Bane did not sigh, nor did he look annoyed to be interrupted in his reading. Instead, he simply shut his book and snuffed his candle by licking his fingers and extinguishing it with a pinch. The cell was plunged into darkness, but Talia could hear him shuffling around, getting ready for sleep. Bane did not need light to see._

_Then at last she felt a little depression on the thin mattress beside her, and felt Bane's warmth radiating from his skin. Talia slithered her arms around Bane, the ice in her veins melting almost immediately._

_"_ _Sweet dreams, little one." Bane placed a chaste and virtuous kiss upon Talia's forehead, and once more she found herself lost in the comfort of sleep._

Talia padded down the stone floor of the men's dormitory corridor, silent as a cat. Most of the doors were shut, their occupants asleep, but every time Talia passed an open door she approached with caution, not wanting to be seen. Even those with their doors propped open seemed to be sleeping, though. Talia was the only soul awake in the place.

Finally she reached the door at the end of the hallway, and she stopped outside of it. She could knock. That would seem to be the polite thing to do. But Talia feared waking other initiates with the sound of her fist rapping on the wood. So, instead, she took a deep and shaking sigh, and she straightened her silk kimono around her lean frame. Then she reached for the brass doorknob and twisted it.

She pushed the heavy door open cautiously, wincing at the soft squeak the hinges made. She peered through the gap in the doorway and sighed. She'd been hoping to sneak in unannounced, but the hinges had given her away. Bane was an extraordinarily light sleeper, she knew, trained by his years in the Pit to wake at the slightest sign of danger.

Now, he sprang to a seated position in his bed. It was very dark in the room, the only light being the dull glow of the moon, but Bane could see her clearly nonetheless.

"Talia?" His whisper rasped in the darkness, filtered by the mask.

She sighed again and entered, quickly pushing the door shut behind her. She stood at the foot of his bed, arms folded determinedly over her chest.

"W-what are you doing here?" There was a strange emotion in Bane's question, an odd strain in his voice. His words trembled, and Talia pinched her lips self-consciously.

She knew he was uncomfortable like this, him barely clothed and in his bed, she a young woman in the same small space with him. His very apparent discomfort only served to sadden Talia. How many nights had he brought her comfort in the night? But it was as Bane had told her. Things were different now.

"I need you to help me train," Talia said softly, her voice a low hum.

"No." Bane leaned over to the table beside his bed and switched on an electric lantern. Suddenly the space was bathed in a dim, warm light. "There are many strong initiates who can help you train. There's no reason why you need me in particular."

Talia licked her lips in frustration and stepped around Bane's bed to stand beside him. Bane watched her move with rapt attention, his glittering green eyes the only indicators of his inner turmoil that Talia could see.

His eyes flashed even more brightly when Talia slowly sank onto his mattress, sitting on the very edge of the bed and folding her hands in her lap.

"I know that things have changed," she began, looking at her fingernails, "but I  _do_  need you, Bane. I never stopped needing you. I had thought – and I was happy to think – that our training would mean conversations, meals together… there's much more to it all than the fights themselves."

"It is not right for us to fight." Bane shook his head. "That's not how I touched you, Talia. It's not  _appropriate - "_

"And why not?" Talia demanded, interrupting him. Bane looked confused, so Talia continued, "You are not my father, and you never were."

"Then tell me what I was, Talia." Bane suddenly leaned forward, his fists balling in anger on the blankets. His eyes flashed again and his voice was a vicious growl.

Talia shrugged and shook her head. "You were my friend."

Bane was silent then, for a long moment, as he appeared to try and calm himself.

"You were my friend," Talia said again, "and now I am older. Now I am a woman."

"You are still a child to me," Bane insisted.

"But I am  _not_  a child," Talia said through gritted teeth, "and friendships evolve, Bane."

She couldn't believe what she was saying. She'd come here to try to convince Bane not to go to her father, and instead she was pitifully trying to convince him to be in love with her. Why?

Did she love him? Yes. She always had. She always would. But love, like friendships, evolved with time.

Abruptly, Bane began to heave himself from the bed, standing in front of where Talia sat. She was about to ask him what he was doing, but then he said,

"If you can best me now, then I will train you."

"What?" Talia furrowed her brow and shook her head in confusion. He wanted to fight  _here,_ in the middle of the night?

"We will wake the whole dormitory," Talia insisted in a hiss.

"Not as long as you can keep yourself quiet," Bane replied, cocking his head teasingly. "Can you do that, little one? Can you keep yourself quiet while you fight me?"

It was a challenge, a test. Talia knew that well enough. He'd often challenged her when she was a child, trying to be light-hearted as he prepared her for the cruel world beyond the Pit.

Now she stared at his face as she stood. When she rose, there were only inches of space between them, though of course Bane towered over Talia. She reached up to stroke his mask gently, considering her options. Bane's breath hitched in his mask when Talia's lithe little fingers brushed over the tubes and plates.

She could do as he asked and fight him now, but she doubted she could beat him, even with the lure and promise of future training. It would be, at best, their final fight. Talia could not deny herself that chance.

So she began to untie her robe, the silk slipping from her shoulders and pooling silently on the bed behind her. Bane's mint green eyes went wide with shock as he surveyed the very thin camisole and shorts she wore beneath the robe.

"What are you doing?" he asked for the second time that night. Talia giggled quietly.

"How am I supposed to fight you in a silk robe?" she demanded. Bane shook his head, and Talia watched as his Adam's apple bobbed with a heavy gulp. "You  _promise_  that if I can get you to admit defeat, that you will train me?" She eyed him suspiciously, hesitant to believe his word.

Bane just nodded wordlessly, his breath heaving through the mask as he tore his eyes from her thin pajamas and looked over to the bedside table. He switched off the lantern, plunging the room into darkness, and as her eyes adjusted Talia could see that he was putting the lantern under the bed. Smart, she thought. That way it would not fall and shatter.

After a long moment in which the only sound was Bane's mechanical breathing, she heard him murmur, "Your move, Miss al Ghul."

Talia knew she would have to be as vicious as possible if she were to defeat him. She thrust her fist upward quickly, aiming for the dim outline of Bane's skull. But even in the darkness, Bane could see her fist as it flew, and he quickly blocked her punch. As he held fast to her arm, Talia whirled around his back and kicked as hard as she could at the backs of his knee. It buckled, and Bane was taken off-guard for a brief moment as he collapsed onto his knees, his hand releasing Talia's arm.

She wrapped her elbow around his neck and squeezed, but Bane flicked his shoulders and expertly flung Talia's body in a flip, such that she landed on her back on the bed.

"Oof!" she uttered, trying desperately to stay quiet. She scrambled to her feet on the mattress as Bane stood. From her new position on the bed, Talia aimed a roundhouse kick at Bane's temple, but once again he caught her leg, and she lost her balance. She tried to spin from his grasp but wound up on her stomach on the bed. She felt Bane drag her body to the edge of the bed roughly, felt him crush her wrists in his fists as he leaned over her. Suddenly his mechanical breath was rapid and shallow beside her ear, and he was heavy on her back – so heavy, in fact, that Talia herself found it difficult to breathe at all. And, yet, Talia was strangely comfortable. She liked the feel of his body flush against hers.

She liked it in a way that was unfamiliar to her, but a way she had wanted to feel for some years now. She'd heard other female initiates giggle and whisper about time they'd spent with men. That had driven Talia to long for a man's intimate touch, but nothing she'd ever experienced with other initiates had come close to satisfying her itch. In this moment, though, Talia felt a sudden thirst, a sudden flame inside of her. It was the feel of his firm and broad chest pinning her body down, the feel of his hands binding her tightly, the sound of his rickety and filtered breathing so near her face. She had a sudden and unsolicited urge to kiss him, though of course that would be impossible even if it made sense to do it.

"Do you concede defeat?" Bane growled in a low voice, squeezing Talia's wrists even tighter.

"Oh,  _yes_ , you cruel beast," Talia whispered acerbically, her words muffled by the blanket. "You have me pinned. Fine. You win. I will leave you alone."

Suddenly Bane's weight was lifted off of her and his grip loosened and released her wrists. With a huff and a sigh, Talia turned her body over so she was lying on her back. She blew a stray curl out of her eyes and adjusted her rumpled camisole. She gazed up at Bane in the darkness and saw the most intense hunger she'd ever seen a man possess. He took a step back, away from the bed, his fists balled tightly at his sides.

Talia propped herself up onto her elbows and realized that she, too, was hungry for more. She wanted to fight him again, right now, just so that she could feel him clutch at her wrists and lean his weight against her.

"I will leave you alone," Talia said again, more to herself than to Bane. She was still panting a bit, tired from the fight, and she could feel her breasts heaving through the thin silk of her camisole.

Still, Bane said nothing. As Talia rose from the bed, she rubbed at her wrists, where she knew she'd bear bruises reminding her of his brutal touch. She put her robe back on and tied it around her waist. Then she looked up sadly at Bane and whispered,

"Sleep well, my friend."

She turned to leave the room. Just as she reached for the doorknob, she was whirled around as Bane seized her tiny waist in his thick hand and turned her body. Talia gasped as she felt her back thump against the door. Bane's other hand joined the first on Talia's waist as their eyes met. Talia's were confused by his sudden advance, and Bane's flamed wildly in the pale moonlight. His gaze coursed over her body, focusing on her exposed collarbone and the feminine curve of her waist, to which he was holding fast. His breath was slow, but its unsteady tremor was audible through the filter of his mask.

His hands squeezed gently at her waist, and at the feel of his grip, Talia felt her eyes flutter shut. To her shame, a little sound escaped her lips. It was not quite a moan; it was more a wordless invitation, a cry for more.

She clenched her eyes shut as she felt Bane's hands drift up her ribcage and heard his breathing snag. There was a sudden and pleasant warmth spreading through her body, originating at Bane's touch and coursing like wildfire through her veins. His touch was light but urgent as his fingertips brushed her torso through the silk. Talia arched her back against the door, leaning into his touch, and she heard his breath quickening. His hands drifted everywhere except her most forbidden places. They did not touch her breasts, though Talia could feel her nipples harden with want, and she knew he could see them through the thin, glossy material she wore.

"Talia…" Bane whispered finally, and she cracked her eyes to see him take a step back and remove his shaking hands from her body. He stared at his trembling fingers for a moment, as if he could not believe what he'd just done. He looked back up at her and met her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Talia mumbled, for she did not know what else to say. She wasn't even entirely certain why she was apologizing. For coming here, to his room in the middle of the night, dressed in silk and tempting him to touch her? She chewed on her bottom lip. She desperately wanted him to tell her that everything was all right, that it was all going to be fine, but his eyes burned with an emotion Talia could not read. What was it? Desire? Regret?

"I… I will see you in the morning," Bane said at last, his voice nervous but determined. "Meet me at dawn in the training room."

Talia felt her grin spread wide across her face. She tried to suppress it but couldn't. "You'll train me?" she asked with disbelief, for of course she had not defeated him as per his demands. Bane just nodded. His hand rose to cup Talia's cheek, and she sighed happily as she leaned her face against his touch and shut her eyes.

Bane reached behind her with his other hand and opened the door, pulling Talia away from it. As she slipped through the little gap in the doorway, she heard his voice murmur,

"Sweet dreams, little one."

* * *

**Shinai**

* * *

_"_ _Come on now, Talia. Hit me."_

_Talia furrowed her brow and swung her fist meekly at Bane. Her fist ricocheted harmlessly off of his hard chest, and he sighed and shook his head. Bane was trying to teach Talia how to defend herself, in case another prisoner should ever 'try anything,' as he had said._

_She wasn't doing very well. She knew that. She was too scared to hit Bane, for he was her only friend, and she worried that if she hurt him, he would not be her friend anymore. But Bane was insisting._

_"_ _Harder," he said, and though his voice was firm, his emerald eyes were soft. He gestured down his shirtless abdomen, at his lower stomach. "It will hurt worse here," he said matter-of-factly._

_"_ _But I don't want to hurt you," Talia insisted, shaking her shaved head resolutely. Bane's eyes softened even more, and he flashed her a tiny smile._

_"_ _You won't hurt me too badly, little one. And, anyway, I'll forgive you. I promise. This is important."_

_Talia took a steadying breath and pulled her fist back. Then she thrust it forward as hard as she could and made contact with Bane's stomach. His abdominal muscles were so taut that, once again, her tiny fist bounced right off. She shook her hand wildly, cursing under her breath at the pain in her fingers._

_To her chagrin, Bane was chuckling quietly. She glared at him and narrowed her sapphire eyes. "I'm doing the best I can."_

_"_ _I know you are." Bane nodded and smiled warmly. He coursed his hand roughly over Talia's buzzed hair, as if to muss it. "Your best is very good, little one. Someday you'll beat me."_

Talia waited patiently in the training room, sitting on the floor with her legs crossed and her hands folded neatly in her lap. She had eaten porridge that morning, and she was waiting in the room for it to settle in her stomach before she started her training.

Her stomach was churning now, and it wasn't from the porridge.

She was terrified to fight Bane again, and at the same time hopelessly motivated. On the one hand, he was far larger and stronger and would probably defeat her every time they sparred. On the other hand, this gave her almost unlimited license to touch him, and the thought made her heart flutter with excitement.

She'd returned to her room the night before and had lain awake for hours. She tossed and turned, desperately clawing at sleep that never came. All she could see in her mind's eye was a whirlwind vision of him clamping his hands on her waist and pushing her against his door. The glow in his eyes – the flash of passion – had been unmistakable. He wanted her; she knew it. He just couldn't admit it to himself enough to take his actions further.

And did she want him back? Desire was a strange feeling for Talia. She'd never experienced anything like the throbbing emptiness she'd experienced back in her room, longing for his hands to be upon her again. She'd coursed her own hands over her body, but of course they felt nothing like his. His were strong and gripped firmly, encompassing her body. Talia knew full well what went on between men and women, for she had once accidentally entered a usually-empty corridor to find a female initiate with her male partner, joined by their anatomy. She'd only been fourteen and had stared wide-eyed at the sight of the man pumping himself in and out of the female initiate's body. Talia had shamefully watched the amorous couple for a few moments before silently slipping around the corner and back the way she had come.

She had promised herself never to engage in such frivolous and licentious behavior. It was not becoming of a true member of the League of Shadows and, anyway, Talia doubted her father would be terribly happy to find out she was behaving in such a way.

But last night, as she lay awake and cold and alone in her bed, Talia wondered at the prospect. Would it feel good? The female initiate she'd seen in the corridor had certainly moaned and gasped in a way that expressed pleasure. Perhaps someday, with the right person, Talia could feel that, too. Now, after Bane's heated touch, she realized she had seen the first glimpses of what her body was capable of feeling.

Talia was shaken from her reverie by the sound of the training room door creaking open. Bane stepped in, cautiously walking into the room and shutting the door quietly behind him.

"Good morning." His mechanically filtered voice echoed in the dank space. Talia grinned at him, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. She quickly tempered her smile and cleared her throat, embarrassed at how glad she was to see him. "Did you eat breakfast?" Bane asked, and Talia felt her heart laugh at how he doted over her like a mother hen, just as he'd done when she was a child.

"I did," she confirmed, nodding as she rose to her feet. She straightened her blue brocade tunic, which she'd chosen because of how the raw silk matched her azure eyes. Bane continued to step into the room, closer to Talia. His hands were balled at his sides and his eyes looked anxious. It seemed as though there were something he needed to say. "What's wrong?" Talia asked gently, longing to reach out and place her palm against his bare chest.

"I…" Bane shook his head as if to rid himself of a fly and coursed his hand over his bald head and his mask straps. "I wanted to apologize… for last night."

Talia furrowed her brow in confusion. "Apologize?" she repeated, shaking her head. "I wanted to  _thank_  you for last night."

"No, Talia. No. It was very inappropriate of me to touch you that way, and I'm very sorry. It won't happen again." Bane held his hands up defensively in front of himself.

"It won't?" Talia asked in a soft voice, feeling sadness well up inside her.

"No. I promise." Bane's voice was firm. Talia said nothing. She felt too rejected to question him, for then she'd seem desperate and cloying for his attentions. "I thought today we would practice with the  _shinai_."

He stalked heavily to the barrels of weapons in the corner and pulled out two of the traditional Japanese bamboo swords. It was good practice to use the  _shinai_ , for they prepared the fighter to use steel weaponry in real combat. Fighting with the bamboo swords also helped hone skills like attacks, counter-attacks, evasive maneuvers, and balance. Talia was especially skilled with the  _shinai_ , and she wondered vaguely how Bane could have known such a thing. Perhaps one or two of Talia's previous opponents had let him in on her areas of expertise.

Bane tossed one of the bamboo swords to Talia, and she expertly snatched it out of the air. She touched its shaft to Bane's weapon and nodded slowly, signaling that she was ready to begin. Bane struck first, lifting the  _shinai_ quickly over his shoulder before bringing it down toward Talia's arm. She deflected his hit with a smooth, sliding motion, and instantly went on the offensive, striking him firmly at the waist before he could respond. She smashed her sword roughly against his muscled abdomen, and Bane grunted in response. He took a few steps backward, toward the wall, and attacked again, more intently this time. His  _shinai_  struck Talia's hip, but as soon as he made contact, Talia swung her sword in a wild swirl.

She had been aiming for his shoulder, but his  _shinai_  clashed against hers and slid it upward, causing her to instead hit his face. The  _shinai_  struck Bane's mask, and all of a sudden there was a frightening hissing noise emerging from the apparatus.

Bane instantly dropped his sword and clutched at his face, his voice howling in pain. He slumped against the wall and began fiddling anxiously with the tubes in front of his nose and mouth, trying to reconnect the two that had become loose.

Talia's  _shinai_  clattered to the ground as she rushed forward, sinking to her knees before Bane and placing a shaking hand on either side of his face. Tears instantly rose to her eyes as she watched Bane's trembling fingers reconnect his mask. He moaned in agony all the while, and when it was finally reconnected, he shut his eyes and tipped his head back against the concrete wall.

"Bane!" Talia exclaimed, clutching desperately at his cheeks with her tiny hands. "I'm so sorry, my friend; I was aiming for your shoulder and -"

"It's all right, little one."

His words silenced Talia, and when he raised his quivering fingers to brush her hair from her eyes, Talia felt a tear tumble down her cheek. She chewed on her bottom lip, angry with herself for crying. She very rarely cried, but her guilt now was eating her alive. Bane's steely gaze met hers and his fingers moved to sweep away the tear from Talia's cheek.

"I'm fine," he insisted, his voice little more than a whisper. "I'm perfectly fine."

But Talia knew he'd been in immense pain. The way he'd staggered backward toward the wall, the horrible sound of his  _shinai_  rattling as it fell to the ground, the terror in his eyes as he'd clutched frantically at his mask…

"I'm sorry," Talia said again, shaking her head. "It was an accident, Bane! I never would have aimed for your mask."

Bane nodded slowly. "But others will," he reminded her, "and I must be prepared to fight the pain."

"You wouldn't have any pain at all if it weren't for me," Talia grumbled, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "The mask you wear, the scars that course over you now… all of it is my fault."

"No." Bane shook his head very firmly. "All of it was the price of your freedom, a price I would have gladly paid a thousand times over."

Talia felt a sudden urge to be nearer to him then, at the sound of his kind and reassuring words. She wiggled her body and scooted forward, between his bent and parted knees. Bane stared at her as she pulled herself up to him, and he made a strange little murmuring noise when she put her arms around him and rested her face in the crook of his neck.

She stayed there for a long moment, silently inhaling his unique scent. His aroma flooded her with memories of lying flush against him in the night, breathing in the reassuring tang of sweat and musk.

At last she felt Bane's arms close around her, hesitantly holding her against him.

"I was so grateful," Talia mumbled into his neck, and Bane shuddered at the feel of her warm breath against his skin. "I am still grateful."

"It was you who made the climb," Bane reminded her. They were silent for a long moment again, as Bane tipped his head back and sighed quietly. Talia felt his arms tighten a bit around her, hugging her near as if he never wanted to let her go.

 _So much for his promise_ , Talia thought, amused. This embrace felt distinctly different from the ones they'd shared those years ago. This time, there was heat radiating from each of them to the other, and there was a tension coiling inside Talia.

Without thinking, she kissed his neck where her head was cradled. It was the gentlest of kisses, just a touch of her lips to his sensitive skin. Nonetheless, Bane reacted as though she'd just disrobed him in one fell swoop. He sucked in breath, hard, and pulled Talia off of his body.

He held her back and stared into her cerulean eyes. His own jade gaze was firm and unyielding, as he murmured, "No, Talia."

He shook his head, but the way his hands trembled on Talia's shoulders, she knew he was convincing himself as much as he was convincing her. She felt complete and utter rejection, as she had earlier, and her eyes welled again. Embarrassed, Talia swept away the tears and sniffed to regain her composure.

"Please, Talia," Bane whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. "You have no idea what I am capable of doing to you."

"How do you know that?" Talia asked defensively, suddenly irritated with his assumption of her innocence. "I know more than you think I do."

Bane's eyes cracked open and he stared at her, confused. Talia crossed her arms over her chest with a childish huff.

"And… where did you learn all of this information?" Bane asked her accusingly, his eyes growing concerned.

Talia knew what he thought. He thought she'd let someone defile her, and the thought horrified him. Whether he was repulsed by the thought of someone taking the body of his beloved Talia, or whether he was jealous, she did not know. She furrowed her brow.

"I… walked in on two people once," she admitted, her cheeks growing very warm, "and the other female initiates have had wagging tongues."

"Ah." Bane nodded. He seemed relieved to hear that she had little or no experience with men, and he said, "Good. You're too young to have…" His voice trailed off then, and his hands slipped from Talia's shoulders.

"I am a woman now," Talia said sensitively, with another huff. "Perhaps I  _should_  take a lover, since you will not have me."

She rose to her feet and turned to pick up the two  _shinai_  from the ground. As she stalked to the weapons barrel, she heard Bane throw himself to his feet and quickly walk after her. She felt herself whirled around by the shoulder and saw Bane's eyes shining with anger.

"Do not ever say such a thing again," he growled, his voice sounding as though it would be unwise to question him. He pointed a finger at Talia, chastising her in a way he'd not done in years. Talia narrowed her eyes at him in a glare, but he said jaggedly, "You are  _too young_ , Talia."

"Am I?" she demanded, suddenly flush with rage. How dare he presume to know what she was ready to do, ready to feel? "Am I too young to lie awake in my bed, unable to quench the thirst inside of me? Am I so young that I still have a child's body? Am I too young to do  _this_?"

With her last word, she pulled herself flush against him and rose onto her toes. She yanked Bane's head down toward her and thrust her mouth against his neck. This time, her kiss was not gentle. She did as her instincts told her to do, coursing her tongue roughly against his skin. She nipped and sucked and knew she'd leave a mark. She only vaguely cared.

"Talia,  _stop_." Bane tried to sound firm and commanding, but instead his voice was a desperate whimper. Talia's hands wandered down Bane's chest as she ignored him and continued to kiss his neck. Her fingertips coursed over his firm pectoral and abdominal muscles, sending both of them into a shiver. Her hands paused at the waistband of his thick pants, and she lost her nerve.

She knew fairly well what lay beneath there. It frightened her a bit to think of touching or even seeing it, though a part of her desperately wanted to do so. Her fingers trembled as they lingered at his waistband, and she felt Bane push her away by her shoulders as he'd done before.

"Talia…" he said, his breath ragged through his mask, "We  _must not.._."

His sea foam green eyes were fraught with anxiety. Talia wanted to remind him with her words that she was no longer a child, but she thought she had reminded him of that rather effectively with her actions. The look in his eyes told her that  _he knew_. He knew she was no longer a child, and he feared his own lack of control around her.

So he did want her, then. She thought it odd that he'd said 'we' instead of 'you' in telling Talia that they must go no further. It was as if he did indeed view himself as an active participant in perpetrating her loss of innocence.

She saw his throat bob with a thick gulp, and Talia could not help herself. Her shaking fingers reached up to stroke his throat, brushing gently over the spot where she'd been rough with her mouth. Already, an angry red welt was forming there. Bane shut his eyes against the feel of her touch. He shuddered violently when the fingers of her other hand curled around his waistband, now eager to know more vividly what lay beneath.

Bane's hand dropped from Talia's shoulder, and he placed his fingers gently over hers at his waistband. Talia fully expected him to wrench her hand away, but he shocked her by guiding her hand a few inches lower, until Talia felt a slight bulge beneath his trousers.

When her hand reached the place where his manhood lay, Bane looked like his knees were going to buckle. He gulped hard again and squeezed his eyes shut. Talia was emboldened by his reaction, by how badly he seemed to want more despite his own scruples. She quickly let her other hand fall from his neck and began to fiddle with the buttons of his trousers. Bane stumbled back a bit and leaned heavily against the barrel of weapons where Talia had returned the  _shinai_.

His breath was heavy and unsteady through the filter of his mask as Talia pulled apart the fastenings of his trousers, preparing to free his manhood. There was only one problem – she didn't know what to do.

She thought back desperately to lewd conversations she'd had with other initiates. One had talked about using her mouth on a man, but Talia was frightened she'd do it all wrong and make Bane second-guess himself. Another woman had told Talia that using just her hands, she could bring a man to the peak of his pleasure.

So Talia boldly reached into Bane's trousers and wrapped her hand around the throbbing shaft of his member, hesitating for a brief moment as she did. He seemed so large, so intimidating, as she pulled his cock free from its cloth prison and stared at it in her little hands.

At the feel of her hands upon him, Bane gasped and gripped the edges of the barrel behind him. "Oh… Talia…" he murmured, his voice a groan in the silence of the room.

Once again, Talia followed her instincts and began stroking him very gently, paying close attention to how he reacted. When she brushed her fingertips over his tip, he practically writhed against the barrel, and so Talia focused most of her attentions there. One hand wandered down to the mysterious place at the base of his shaft, weighing the pair of orbs there in her palm.

Soon she noticed the sheen of clear liquid at the tip of his cock, lubricating her hand movements. Talia felt her breath hitch at the sight of him, engorged and slick. Heat flushed angrily throughout her entire body, and moisture blossomed insistently between her aching thighs. Meanwhile, Bane panted frenetically through his mask and moaned softly, his fingers clutching anxiously at the rim of the weapons barrel.

Talia wasn't entirely sure that she was doing any of this right. It seemed that she was onto  _something_ , given Bane's visceral reaction to her touch, but she needed reassurance. As she pumped her hand against him, she whispered in a trembling voice, "Like this?"

"Just… just exactly like that, little one," Bane mumbled, his voice nearly incoherent. He reached from the barrel to entangle his fingers in her mahogany curls, pulling her face against his chest. Talia heard his heart racing, felt his chest heave with frantic breaths, and then he said rather firmly, "You must stop now, though."

He went so far as to wrench her hands from him, and Talia looked up at him with confusion and rejection in her eyes. She was even more baffled when he quickly seized his member and tucked it up against his abdomen, buttoning his pants as expeditiously as he could.

"What's wrong?" Talia asked cautiously, very certain that she'd done something to offend him. Bane took a deep and quaking breath.

"When a man… finishes… while doing this," he began, looking very embarrassed, "it can make quite a mess unless there is a cloth or drain nearby."

Talia nodded knowingly, realizing that she had indeed heard a female initiate mention the viscous fluid that resulted from a man's pleasure. She, too, felt embarrassed now for some reason. Was she a complete harlot, pumping her hand against him in a frenzy of emotion and passion?

But Bane did not seem angry, and as he caught his breath, he cradled Talia's face in his palm and his eyes crinkled calmly. Talia knew she was smiling at him. She had not seen his smile in years, not since he'd gotten the mask, but she remembered it well. He'd had thick, pillowy-looking lips. His smile had been broad and bright. Talia wondered absently what it would be like to kiss him on the mouth, and she stared at the mask wistfully. Her fingers wandered up to stroke the contraption, coursing over the cold metal tubes and gliding up the strap on his cheek. Bane's eyes shone as he stared at her, and his own fingers squeezed her face very gently.

"How you've grown, little one," Bane said, his voice barely audible through the mask. Talia reached up with her free hand and pressed his fingers more firmly against her cheek.

Talia was jarred from the blissful moment by the sound of the door opening behind her. With a start, she jumped away from Bane and turned to face the door.

Ra's al Ghul stepped briskly into the room, and when he did, he looked rather suspicious.

"Why aren't you training?" he asked Talia accusingly.

"We've just finished with the  _shinai,_ " Talia insisted, not entirely lying.

"We were just about to begin practicing with the poles," Bane added, quickly pulling two long rods from the weapons barrel. "She's doing very well. She handily defeated me with the  _shinai."_

Ra's al Ghul nodded and began backing slowly from the room. "I want three more hours of training in before you break for midday meal," he insisted, and Talia nodded obediently. She could not help but notice the look of intense distrust and skepticism that her father flashed toward Bane. As Ra's shut the door, Talia gulped, realizing that the entire situation had been much too risky for her liking. She instantly regretted having touched Bane  _here_ , in the training room.

As Bane handed her one of the long wooden poles, Talia sighed to herself. If she wanted to pick up where they'd left off, it would mean another sneak to his room in the middle of the night – as long as her father did not catch her sneaking.


	2. Chapter 2

**Saved**

* * *

Talia stood beneath the rush of water, savoring its mild warmth. She washed her hair and spread a bit of sesame oil through her curly hair to condition it. While it soaked in, she scrubbed her body with goat's milk soap and a natural sponge.

The few times Talia had been beyond the walls of the League's headquarters since escaping the Pit, she had noticed some strange things about that world. Women wore elaborate clothes, washed their hair with creams from plastic bottles, and piddled about upon spindly-heeled shoes. It had all seemed bizarre and foreign to Talia, but her father had told her that someday she would need to learn how to behave like those women… so that she could blend into the world on missions. She wasn't sure when Ra's al Ghul would finally send her on a mission, but she was seventeen years old and felt that, at least from a fighting standpoint, she was ready.

Talia rinsed the oil from her hair and shut off the shower. She wrapped a thin towel around her body and used another to blot dry her hair. As she stood before the little mirror on the wall, combing through her locks, she stared at herself and tried to see the child that she had been – the child that Bane had known. She had no pictures of herself from that time, and there had been no mirrors in the Pit. Her only memories of what she'd looked like stemmed from random glances she'd caught of herself in puddles on the prison floor.

But she remembered Bane. Oh, yes. She remembered the way his voice had sounded then; she could hear it clear as a bell inside of her head. He'd been leaner then – still a powerful fighter, but not as thick and built as he was now. In some ways, he'd been more kind, more gentle then. In other ways, he had frightened her with the way he brawled the other prisoners. Fights over food, in particular, were common, and Talia had been accustomed to seeing Bane in combat for scraps that he always gave directly to her.

Talia brushed her teeth and spat out the minty toothpaste into the sink, watching the white foam swirl down the drain. She went from the tiny bathroom into her bedroom and pulled on a mellifluous kimono. Her father had brought back this kimono for her after a trip to Japan. It was crafted of the finest silk, jade in color with the design of a cherry blossom tree. It reached her ankles, and once she cinched the tie around her waist, it was not at all evident that Talia had nothing on beneath it.

She tied her damp hair back and rubbed rose oil onto her pulse points. Now, she thought, she was ready to seek out Bane. She would take no light with her in order to more surreptitiously sneak through the cold stone hallways of the League's headquarters. She opened the door from her room to the hallway and looked in both directions. There was no one. She quickly skirted down the wall in the direction of the men's dormitory. She would have to pass through a common area, and she could only pray that no one was still up and about.

She was not that lucky.

"Talia!"

She whirled around, clutching her kimono more tightly around her body. Before her stood Aashir, a male initiate who'd arrived in the League perhaps two months earlier. He was young, only twenty years of age, and he had a thin, chiseled form that reflected his expertise in swordsmanship and speed.

"Hello, Aashir," Talia mumbled meekly, cursing the fact that the young man had caught her sneaking. Aashir grinned broadly at her.

"All dressed up and nowhere to go?" he asked coyly, eyeing her kimono in a manner that made Talia the slightest bit uncomfortable. He took a few steps toward Talia and lowered his voice a bit. "Has your father told you that you're to train with me tomorrow?"

Talia stared at him, befuddled. She shook her head in confusion and insisted, "I spar with Bane now."

Aashir tipped his head to the side and smiled again. "Your father got word that you were especially skillful with the  _shinai_. It just so happens that weapon is a particular area of proficiency for me. Your father would like you to practice the  _shinai_  with a more…  _skilled_ … partner for a few days."

Talia felt her heart sink. This decision by Ra's al Ghul had nothing to do with wanting Talia to get more skilled with the bamboo sword. No. He wanted her to be away from Bane for a while. He'd always tried to keep distance between them, and the way he'd glared at Bane today had told Talia he would do it again.

"I'll speak to my father in the morning," Talia said finally, and she began to walk past Aashir.

"What's the matter, Talia? You don't want to train with me?" Aashir teased, and Talia turned around to face him and make a snarky rebuttal. But then she saw him, standing perhaps ten yards down the hallway behind Aashir.

"Bane," Talia whispered to herself, staring beyond Aashir. The young man had to have known Bane had been there, but for how long had her Protector been listening to the conversation? And why was he headed this way in the first place?

Aashir nodded and turned to go back to the men's dormitory. "You go ahead and talk to your father," he said nonchalantly over his shoulder. "I'll be waiting for you with your sword." Talia watched, wide-eyed, as Aashir reached the statue-like Bane. His eyes tracked Aashir as the younger man brushed wordlessly past him, and Talia saw his fists clench at his sides.

She stood still where she was and stared as Bane approached her silently. He wore no shirt, only his thick back brace and a pair of loose, drawstring black linen trousers. Talia gulped and put her hands on her waist.

"Good evening, Talia," Bane said quietly when he reached her, his voice dangerously singsong and terse. He crossed his hands in front of him and nodded in greeting.

"Where are you off to?" Talia asked casually, trying to avoid the subject of Aashir.

"I do not much care for the way that young man stares at you, nor his tone of speech with you," Bane said, completely ignoring Talia's question.

"As opposed to the way  _you_  stare at me?" Talia asked playfully, though it did not at all seem that Bane was in the mood for playfulness. Her smile vanished when she saw the dark look in his green eyes.

"He only wants one thing, Talia," Bane said after a moment of silence, his voice very serious and concerned.

"And what do you want?" Talia asked timidly, knowing she was pushing her luck.

Bane's eyes flashed with what Talia thought was anger. "He stares at you with nothing but hungry lust," Bane said defensively. "I've seen him watch you walk down the hallway; I've watched him gape at you in common spaces. That boy has nothing but covetousness in his eyes." Bane stepped closer to Talia and closed the gap between them. He rested his hands very gently over Talia's upon her waist and squeezed gently. "I  _care_  for you, little one. No one will ever love you the way I always have."

Talia gulped heavily. "You love me as a child," she insisted, unable to accept his words for some reason. But Bane shook his head firmly, saying nothing. Finally, Talia asked again, "Where were you going?"

"I was coming to see you," Bane said matter-of-factly. "I needed to talk to you."

Talia was conflicted in that moment as to what to do. They couldn't go back to the men's dormitory, for Aashir was there, awake, and would see them go together into Bane's room. Taking Bane's hand firmly, Talia turned to go back toward her own room. Bane pulled himself in front of her, which was just as well since his senses were able to detect the slightest sound or movement. He pulled her down the small hallway to their right until he reached the door he knew to be Talia's. Her father's suite was down another small hall ahead, and Bane stared carefully into the dark corridor for a moment before pushing Talia's door open and darting inside.

When the door shut behind them, Talia sat breathlessly upon her bed. The white blankets poufed around her when she collapsed, her nerves ragged. She buried her face in her hands and heard the lock on the door wrench shut. When she looked up, Bane towered above her in front of the bed, glancing around her little room with curious eyes.

"Much more luxurious than our cell in the Pit, no?" he said softly, his eyes finally glinting in the moonlight with a bit of humor. Talia chuckled under her breath and coursed her fingers over the smooth, soft blankets.

"No bed was ever so comfortable to me as that lice-ridden cot," she said gently, and Bane's eyes crinkled for a brief moment.

"As I said, I needed to speak with you," he told her, sighing deeply. He put his hands on his hips, drawing attention to the tight muscles of his chest and abdomen, and Talia struggled to listen to his words as she ogled him. His voice was barely a whisper as he said, "Your father came to me while you were eating your evening meal. He told me you would be training with Aashir for at least a few days starting tomorrow. Like I said, Talia, I neither like nor trust that boy, and I don't want him… doing anything… to you."

He stammered over his last few words and coursed his hands nervously over his bald head. Talia narrowed her eyes at him.

"He's skinny and weak," she insisted, brushing off Bane's concerns. "I can defend myself against him very easily."

Bane eyed her apprehensively. "I don't want you to have to do that," he said, shaking his head on his thick neck. His voice was gravelly and quiet. "I want you to train with  _me_ ; you have nothing to fear from me. You're a beautiful young woman, Talia, and there are men who would take advantage…"

He kept talking, but Talia didn't hear anything else that he said. All she could think was that he'd just called her beautiful. He'd also ( _finally)_ referred to her as a 'young woman.' Talia could scarcely think.

"Talia." Bane's voice was firm now, and Talia jolted out of her thoughts to look up at him. He stared at her expectantly, as if he'd just asked her a question, and he raised his eyebrows. He said finally, "Well?"

Talia shook her head and shrugged. "I…" she began, but Bane nodded knowingly.

"Do what you must," he mumbled, and Talia was intensely confused since she'd missed out on his diatribe. "You must not contradict your father. Just… be careful, please, and tell me if  _anything_  happens."

He made a move to the door, to leave, and Talia panicked. She gulped heavily and said, a bit too loudly, "Wait!"

Bane paused and turned back toward her bed, his green eyes scanning her sapphire ones curiously in the watery moonlight. His hand fell from the doorknob and he stood straighter.

"I… _I_  was coming to see  _you_  when Aashir caught me," she said softly. "I wanted… needed… to see you."

"Well, now you have seen me," Bane said rather sourly. "Was there something else that you needed?"

Talia swallowed again and nodded. Her eyes seared into his and she loosened the tie at her waist a bit, just enough to push one of the shoulders of the silk kimono down a bit. She drifted her fingers across her exposed collarbone, staring so intensely into Bane's eyes that she felt a physical burn. As her fingers drifted to the swell of her breast, she saw Bane avert his gaze.

He shook his head quickly and took a step back, nearly stumbling over Talia's low dresser. He caught himself and rose.

"I have to go, Talia," he insisted, walking in faltering steps toward the door again. Talia felt her heart sink with the sting of rejection, but just as Bane reached for the doorknob once more, he whirled around and quickly approached her bed. "It wasn't enough, was it?" he demanded breathlessly. "What happened earlier?"

Talia tried to keep her voice steady as she replied, "Was it enough for you?"

Bane did not answer for a moment, but then at last he shook his head and whispered, "No."

Spurred to a new level of confidence by Bane's evident want, Talia reached for his hands and pulled gently until he conceded and knelt on the bed. She urged him to lie down on his back on the small mattress, and he did, though his jade eyes looked uncertain and even fearful.

"What do you want from me, little one?" he asked, his voice a choked whisper. Talia smiled very gently at him and leaned down to plant a feather-light kiss upon his chest.

"I just want  _you_ ," she answered, drifting her fingertips down his arms until she could lace her fingers through his. She remembered one of the ways she'd seen the couple in the hallway making love – the woman straddling the lying man – and decided to mimic the position.

She tossed one of her toned little legs across Bane's lap and knelt above him, her hands still gripping his firmly. As she moved, her loosened kimono fell farther off of her shoulder, baring her breasts. At the feel of the cool night air, Talia's nipples went hard and she shivered. Beneath her, Bane watched her body with glistening eyes, gasping slightly through his mask at the sight of her pillowy, round breasts.

"Beautiful…" he murmured, and Talia felt her heart flutter with desire for him. He made no move to touch her chest, so Talia pulled one of his hands, still interlocked with hers, up to her left breast. She placed his palm on her soft skin and heard his breath snag. Feeling fire flare through her veins, Talia tipped her head back and instinctively lowered her hips to meet his.

He still wore his drawstring linen pants, but Talia had no undergarments beneath her kimono. When her sex touched against the bulge between Bane's thighs, there was only the thin layer of linen between them.

She sighed as she felt his hardness against her, and then she let her intuition guide her to grind slowly against him. His hand tightened on her breast and his other hand moved to slide up her bare thigh, beneath the silky kimono. Bane's fingers ghosted over Talia's hip as she moved on him, until they finally reached the damp and secret spot between her legs.

"Ungh…" Talia uttered, quite against her will, as Bane began to fiddle with her nub. The sensations overwhelmed Talia – one of his hands massaging her breast, the other playing with her womanhood, and the feel of his erection pressing eagerly against her. Suddenly Talia wanted nothing more than to feel him inside of her, though she had no clue what that would mean. She reached for the ties at his waist, and Bane stopped her by quickly reaching for her wrists.

He shook his head breathlessly, but at the sight of Talia's disappointed and rejected eyes, he explained, "You are intact, little one. You will stay that way."

Talia very much did not appreciate him telling her what she would and would not do, but she realized he was trying to preserve her virtue.

"I won't be untouched forever," she pointed out, "and I only want  _you_."

"Believe me, Talia," Bane said, his voice strained as she relentlessly continued to grind herself against him, "I want you more badly than I can explain. But… I can't…"

His words died then as he clutched at Talia's waist, pulling her hard against his hardened cock.

"Then let's just pretend… at least for tonight," Talia requested eagerly, feeling a twisting sort of tension between her thighs as her nub rubbed insistently against his linen pants. She knew she was getting them wet with her essence, dirtying and ruining them, but Bane didn't seem to mind one bit. Instead, he nodded at her words and clenched his eyes shut.

One of his hands drifted back up to her chest, where he brushed his thumb over her nipple. His breath came shallow and rapid through the filter of his mask, and a sheen of sweat glistened on his bald head.

Talia leaned down to rub her breasts against his pectoral muscles as she ground, the new angle allowing her to dig more deeply against his erection. She felt herself climbing a sort of mountain, or perhaps ascending to the top of a cliff, for she felt herself about to fall. Heat seared through her body and a rush of moisture flooded her sex. Her ears began to ring and her breath was ragged and unsteady.

Then, suddenly, her mind exploded. She felt her muscles clenching rhythmically as her hypersensitive nub rubbed as firmly as possible against Bane's hard cock. She had no control over her voice as she cried out in blissful agony, and she felt Bane's large hand clap firmly against her mouth to quiet her.

"Shh, little one," he said soothingly, though he sounded quite out of control of himself. Talia collapsed off of Bane's lap, unable to grind any longer. She was exhausted and her body was too sensitive now to move on him. She curled up into a little ball beside Bane's trembling body and tried to catch her breath as she recovered from her climax.

Once she was off of him, Bane's shaking fingers moved to untie his linen pants and pull his cock from the cloth confines. He began stroking himself furiously, panting unevenly through his mask. Talia watched him touch himself, enraptured and fascinated, and felt her own desire mounting again. His large hand pumped roughly over his swollen tip and throbbing shaft, while his other hand clutched anxiously at the sheets on the bed. Talia watched a bead of sweat trickle over the straps of his mask, and then his breathing stopped altogether. His eyes wrenched themselves tightly shut and he made a quiet, choked noise as his hand pulled down once more on his cock.

Then she saw him erupt, his seed spilling forth in several irregular streams and landing in small pools on his toned stomach. Talia gasped in wonder, desperately wanting to reach out and feel the fluid between her fingers. Instead, she thought hastily that, earlier, he'd mentioned the need for a rag, so she forced herself off of the bed. She stalked quickly to the bathroom and retrieved a wet washcloth from her shower. She used it to clean off his stomach, wiping the sticky fluid from his skin. She tossed the washcloth into her laundry and turned back to where Bane lay, still panting as he stared at the ceiling.

He slid his pants back up over his softening member, his fingers trembling wildly as he tried to tie the drawstring. His hands shook too much for him to do it, so Talia brushed his fingers away and gently tied the pants, sodden with her essence, for him. Bane reached for her to come back onto the bed with him, so she slithered onto the mattress beside him, casting one leg over his body along with one of her arms.

She'd often slept like this with him in the Pit – her face cradled against his shoulder as she clutched onto his body in slumber. Now, it felt very different. She wasn't holding onto him out of fear, but out of contentment.

When Talia was a child, Bane would often kiss her forehead affectionately. Now, he turned his head toward her as if he were going to do just that. But the mask was in the way, and Talia realized sadly that he would never kiss her again.

But, oh! The things he  _could_  do… the things he'd done tonight… Talia shuddered against his warm, hard body and felt heat rush through her again. She closed her eyes against her desire and swallowed hard.

She felt his hand pulling the tie from her hair, felt his fingers entangle themselves in her curls as he massaged her scalp gently. As he touched he, she thought back to his words earlier – ' _No one will ever love you the way I always have._ '

Talia drifted off to sleep to the echoing sound of his words in her mind, the very real feel of his touch and of his body. But as she slept, she dreamed the frightening nightmare that had plagued her sleep for years.

She was climbing out of the Pit, leaping up the holds, and she looked down to see Bane encircled by an angry mob. The other prisoners leaped onto Bane. He was strong, but there was only one of him against the dozen or more men attacking him.

Talia startled awake, trying to shake the horrible dream – memory - from her mind. She reached out for Bane's hand, but the space beside her was empty and cold. Talia blinked through the darkness and whispered, "Bane?"

There was no one there. He had gone; he'd snuck out so that they wouldn't be caught in the morning. Talia was all alone.

* * *

**Susurrations**

* * *

_"_ _Bane?"_

_Talia's little voice rang out in the dank gloom of the cell, and from across the space, Bane looked up at her with curious eyes. He was eating the scraps of food she'd convinced him to take for himself. Stale bread and bad meat were all they had, and he'd tried to get Talia to eat the lot. She'd absolutely insisted that he have some._

_"_ _Yes, little one?" he asked, swigging down some water with his food._

_"_ _Are all men so evil as those that killed my mother?"_

_Bane did not answer at first. He put his wooden cup down on the stone floor and sighed. Then, finally, he said gently, "Well, Talia… I can tell you that most people in the world are not good. But there are some who are."_

_"_ _People like you." Talia nodded knowingly. If there was anyone in the world who was good, it was her friend, her Protector. Bane was good, surely._

_But Bane shook his head. "I'm not so good as you credit me, little one."_

_"_ _You've saved my life more times than I can count," she insisted, crossing her resting her elbows on her knees. "You give me food and safety and friendship. If you are not good, then I do not know who could be."_

_Bane sighed again, more deeply this time, and stared at Talia for a moment. His full lips pursed as he considered what to say. "There is much about me that you do not know, Talia," he admitted, ripping a bite of bread from the little loaf. "Men like me… I hope you do not encounter men like me when you escape this place."_

_"_ _I don't think that will ever happen," Talia said sadly._

_Bane rose from where he sat. He brushed his hands off on his flowing garment and handed Talia the cup of water. "Do you see the light coming in?" he asked, gesturing out to the open sky of the tall tunnel beyond their cell. Talia nodded. "That light is your hope," Bane informed her, "and one day you shall reach it."_

_"_ _And will you come with me?" Talia asked, her voice nervous and her blue eyes searching his._

_Bane chewed on his lip and nodded firmly. "Of course I will."_

Talia grunted as she deflected another strike from Aashir's sword. She batted his  _shinai_  away with hers and swung her own weapon in a cutting spiral that landed with a ' _thwack'_  upon Aashir's shoulder.

He took a step back, and so did Talia, for she'd won this round. Aashir shook his head in frustration.

"You're too good for me, Talia," he laughed, putting his hand on his hip. He was desperately out of breath; they'd been sparring for hours on end for the fifth day in a row.

In the five days that she'd been training with Aashir, Talia had not seen nor heard from Bane. She'd hoped to encounter him in the hallway, but she'd seen nothing of him since she'd fallen asleep curled up with him in her bed. It was as if he'd disappeared.

Finally, this morning, Talia had asked her father where Bane was.

"He's training," Ra's al Ghul had answered brusquely. "Why do you ask?"

Talia hadn't given her father an answer. "When do I begin sparring with him again?" she had inquired, as her father narrowed his eyes.

"Tomorrow, as long as Aashir tells me you've grown stronger with the  _shinai_ ," he promised. "In fact, I think I shall observe your fights with Aashir this afternoon and see what progress you've made. Then I will determine your future as Bane's sparring partner."

"All right," Talia had nodded. "Thank you, Father."

She'd turned to go, and then Ra's al Ghul had cleared his throat behind her. Talia had turned back and stared at her father curiously. "Perhaps you should simply continue working with Aashir," he had suggested in an oily voice, "and Bane with someone closer to his level."

Insulted and angry, Talia had sighed and said tersely, "Aashir is fast, but he's weak. I could take him down very easily with my fists. Bane challenges me."

"Hmm. Well, then, I suppose you simply  _must_  train with him." There had been a strange glint in Ra's al Ghul's eyes, one that told Talia he knew more than he was intimating.

Now, Talia fought with Aashir as her father stood, arms crossed over his chest, in the corner of the room. As she won the second round of two, Aashir motioned that he needed a pause to get a sip of water. He dipped a wooden mug into a barrel of water and gulped the liquid down gratefully.

While Talia waited for Aashir to recover, the door to her left creaked open. To Talia's surprise, Bane walked in slowly and joined Ra's al Ghul in the corner wordlessly. He nodded once, curtly, in greeting at Talia and stood with his hands on his hips. Today he was wearing a full black linen ensemble of tunic and pants, and Talia suddenly flashed back to the image of him pulling himself from similar pants, of him groaning and clenching his eyes against the feel of his pleasure…

"Talia!"

Aashir stood with his sword at the ready, and Talia snapped out of her reverie. "Oh," she said, noticing for the first time that Aashir was ready to fight once more. "I'm sorry."

They fought for long minutes, each of them expertly deflecting the other's swings and strikes, until Talia steeled herself and realized that if she won this round, she could go back to fighting Bane instead of Aashir.

With a growl and a mighty jab, she made contact at last with Aashir's tunic. Her  _shinai_  stabbed him in the ribcage, and he gasped at the pain of impact. Talia, feeling quite satisfied with herself, chuckled and took a step away from Aashir.

"That's three out of five," she announced, to all three of the men in the room. "I have won the match."

"Indeed," Ra's al Ghul said from the corner, hauling himself from where he leaned on the wall. He stalked to the center of the room and took Aashir's sword from the young man. He walked to the weapons barrel to replace it and beckoned for Talia to hand him her  _shinai_ , as well. "Thank you, Aashir, for helping Talia excel with this particular weapon. I think we can all agree that she's quite the little expert now."

Talia felt her cheeks grow warm, embarrassed by her father's condescending language. "I've defeated both Bane and Aashir with the  _shinai_ ," she said defensively, arms akimbo on her hips. "I  _am_  an expert with this weapon."

Ra's turned to his daughter and smiled, amused. "So you are," he agreed with a nod, "but you have a long way to go with your fists, and a long way to go with your temper." Talia furrowed her brow angrily as her father turned to walk from the room. Just before he shut the door behind him, Ra's al Ghul turned to Bane and said, "Do for her boxing what Aashir has done to her swordsmanship."

And then he was gone, leaving Talia alone in the training room with Bane and Aashir.

"You know, Talia," Aashir said playfully, ignoring the fact that Bane stood in the corner, "I could help you get better at sparring with your fists. It really is all about speed and agility. Brute force can only get you so far."

Talia was about to answer, but then Bane stepped out of the shadows, his hands clenched at his sides, as they so often were when he was angry. "I should like to see how your speed defeats force," Bane said, cocking his head. There was a dangerous singsong nature to his voice, and even the smug Aashir looked mildly intimidated.

"You think that beating me in one fight is going to impress Talia?" Aashir asked with overconfident disbelief. He arched his dark eyebrows, and a broad, mocking smile crossed his face. "You may be large and strong, Bane, but at the end of the day you've got a muzzle strapped to your ruined face and a brace to keep your spine from shattering. Admit it. You've got weaknesses, too." Aashir grinned at Talia and winked, making her shudder with revulsion. "At least I could kiss Talia if I wanted to."

Talia felt rage course through her veins, but before she could scream at Aashir for his disgusting cruelty, Bane struck. His fist smashed down and hit Aashir's jaw, and his knee thrust up to crash into the young man's ribs. Talia gasped and suppressed a squeal, taking a step back from the men. She watched in horror as Bane shoved Aashir to the ground, kicking him squarely in the stomach when he fell.

She rushed forward and threw herself in front of Aashir, holding up her hands to stop Bane. "Stop!" she cried.

"Step aside, Talia," Bane growled, but Talia shook her head firmly. Behind her, Aashir groaned and she heard him spit out a tooth.

"My father will never allow me to see you again if you harm him further," Talia said with warning in her voice. "He's an initiate."

Bane narrowed his eyes, his breath shaking through his mask. "Not for long," he said, and he whirled around his shoulder to strut angrily from the room. He slammed the door behind him, leaving Talia alone with the moaning, injured Aashir.

Talia could have helped him to his feet. She could have asked if he was all right. Instead, she stared down at him, repulsed by the words that Aashir had spoken to agitate Bane in the first place. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at his bloody form, curled up into a ball.

"You should go to the infirmary," she pronounced, "and then you should never speak to me again unless you want me to tell my father exactly what you said to me."

Then Talia, like her father and Bane before her, stalked from the training room and stepped out into the hallway.

In the middle of the night, Talia lay awake in her bed, unable to sleep. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself drawn out into the hallway, stepping through the shadows toward the men's dormitory. The past five nights, she'd not slept well, not since she'd fallen asleep in Bane's arms. Now she was exhausted and desperate to feel his warmth against her again.

She reached his door and instinctively raised her hand to knock on the wood. She caught herself, realizing that she'd wake the other men by knocking. She tugged on her flowing white nightgown and pushed the door open cautiously.

Bane was awake, lying atop his bed with his hands folded on top of his bare stomach. At the sound of his door creaking open, he glanced up, but Talia could tell he'd not yet slept tonight. There was fatigue in his green eyes, weariness visible even in the dim moonlight.

"What are you doing here, little one?" he asked when she'd shut the door behind her. He propped himself up onto his elbows and stared at her curiously.

"I couldn't sleep," Talia whispered, slithering onto the bed beside him without asking permission. Bane wordlessly scooted over and tucked her under his blanket. He gave her his pillow and lay on his side to face her.

"Nor I," he admitted, and only now did Talia see the depth of the strain in his gaze. She reached out to stroke the skin under his bleary eyes and leaned forward to plant a kiss on his cheek, just above the place where his mask cut across his face. Bane gulped. "I wish I could kiss you back," he whispered.

"You can't let people like Aashir get under your skin," Talia scolded him. "I've been teased by men like him as long as I've been here. You're stronger, better, than he is. You don't have to prove it. Everyone knows it."

"I did not attack him because he mocked my mask," Bane said defensively. "I attacked him because he spoke of kissing you."

Talia blinked and whispered, "And did that make you jealous?"

She wasn't sure how she wanted him to answer. There was something about knowing that Bane had been enraged by his protective and envious nature that made heat spread through her veins.

"Perhaps it did," Bane admitted, pushing himself up onto his elbow so that he hovered over Talia. With his free hand, he stroked her dark curls and brushed his knuckles over her cheekbone. "I can not bear the thought of you with another man."

Talia stared up into his glistening green eyes, searching and scanning them. "Then would you have me as your own?" she asked, her voice barely audible to her own ears.

"I would love you as I've always done," Bane answered cryptically, "though I would, perhaps, express my affection in ways more suited to the new… status quo."

"And what is that status quo?" Talia asked, a wry smile crossing her red lips. Her fingers drifted up to stroke his face again, but Bane caught her wrist in his hand. He laced his fingers through hers and squeezed gently.

For a long moment, he said nothing at all, just brushed his thumb across the back of Talia's hand and stared with longing into her sapphire eyes. When at last Talia could take the heat of his gaze no longer, she repeated, "What is the status quo, Bane?"

"I… I love you," Bane said finally, his voice sounding surprised. He seemed shocked at himself for saying the words, though he'd obliquely told her as much a thousand times over.

Talia felt her heart swell, though she was not nearly as surprised to hear him say such a thing as he himself seemed to be. "I love you, too," she promised, nodding. "I always have."

But Bane shook his head firmly and squeezed her hand roughly. "No. It's different now. I – I'm in love with you, Talia."

Her breath snagged in her throat and she felt tears surge to the surface. She blinked hard to keep the tears at bay, but it was to no avail. They tumbled forth from her eyes, silent but steady. She chewed on her bottom lip as she considered Bane's words. She was too shocked to answer him, so she said nothing. As the seconds passed and she cried wordlessly, Bane's green eyes grew concerned and restless.

"I'm sorry," he said finally, pulling away from her to sit up. He released her hand and looked away, embarrassed. "I should not have said… I'm sorry. You should go back to bed."

Talia's tears continued to noiselessly flow as she reached her hand up once more to stroke Bane's face. She longed so badly to see his face, to kiss his lips, though she knew it was completely impossible.

Bane had once mentioned that the mask was primarily for chronic pain that resulted from back surgery. When he'd been attacked by the mob, they'd caused a severe spinal injury that had required a long and complicated surgical solution. The pain that resulted would never go away, and the only way Bane could function, much less be the warrior he needed to be, was to constantly ingest painkillers through the mask. But he'd never mentioned the damage to his face, so Talia didn't know quite what lay beneath the mask.

"I want nothing more than to kiss you right now," she said quietly, speaking her first words since he'd confessed to being in love with her. She instantly regretted what she'd said, because she thought it would only serve to make him feel guilty and inadequate. Instead, Bane reached behind his head and turned the dial on his mask. He inhaled deeply three times, his eyes clenched shut, then cranked the dial in the other direction. Then he unbuckled the clasps strapping the mask to his head.

Talia watched in wonder, completely shocked, as Bane shakily pulled the mask from his face. He gasped in pain as soon as the mask left his mouth, but he nonetheless placed the mask on the bed beside him.

Bane's face was scarred and damaged, but not so ruined as Talia would have thought it to be. His nose was crooked and a long scar ran down its bridge. His full lips had been sliced open, and as a result a thick scar coursed from the bottom of his nostril all the way to his chin. Ultimately, he looked very much like he had the last time Talia had seen his face.

Her tears were no longer silent as they fell. She sobbed openly, for the first time in years heaving with cries.

Bane silenced her by leaning down to envelop her in a kiss. His mouth tasted surprisingly tangy and citrusy, and Talia realized he must remove his mask from time to time to brush his teeth and shave his face. She knew he took nutrition and hydration intravenously, but every once in a while, the mask had to come off. She just didn't know for how long he could stand not wearing it.

Bane moaned a bit when his lips touched Talia's, but she didn't know whether it was from pain or pleasure, or perhaps both. Talia continued to sob as he kissed her gently, overwhelmed by the feel of his damaged mouth on hers.

"Shh, little one," Bane soothed, his hand petting Talia's curls. Her eyes went wide at the sound of his voice, unmuffled and unfiltered, just the way she remembered it. Her lips parted in surprise, and Bane seized the opportunity to slip his tongue delicately into Talia's mouth.

She'd never been kissed the way he was kissing her now. She'd never had a man's tongue in her mouth, had never been caressed the way his hands coursed over her face and neck.

He hovered over her, holding his weight off of her, nipping and sucking at her mouth hungrily. Talia let out a little groan, reaching her hands up to grasp at his newly exposed cheeks. She kissed him back, more enthusiastically than she would have believed herself capable of doing. She dragged her tongue across the roof of his mouth, and he sighed blissfully into the kiss.

After a few moments, Bane reached with trembling hands for his mask. He pulled away from Talia, and she knew that his time was up. He shuddered as he strapped the contraption back onto his face and adjusted the dial. Once more he was hidden away from her, but Talia touched her fingertips to her lips and shut her eyes ecstatically. He'd  _kissed_  her. Bane, her friend and Protector, had  _kissed_  her. It would be a momentous occasion even without the mask, but the fact that he'd subjected himself to intense pain just to taste her lips made her heart pound.

Bane leaned against the wall beside the bed, tipping his head back as he breathed in his medicine. Talia had a thousand questions to ask him, but instead she just said softly, "I'm in love with you, too, Bane."

His eyes moved slowly to look at her, and they crinkled with a smile, though there was sadness in them.

"You don't have to say that just because I was foolish enough to admit it."

"I'm saying it because it's true," Talia insisted, and she drifted her tear-soaked fingertips across his bare, heaving chest.

She thought of asking him for more, of asking him to touch her and claim her. She thought better of it, realizing that there had been two watersheds that had occurred in the room tonight. He'd told her he was in love with her, and he'd endured horrific pain just to kiss her.

That was enough.

Talia wordlessly heaved herself from his bed and stood beside it, trembling with emotion.

"Goodnight," she said softly, after a long moment. "I shall see you in the morning."

Bane nodded against the wall, his eyes still shut as he recovered from the glorious agony that had been their kiss.

"Goodnight, little one," he whispered.

_"_ _Bane?"_

_She said his name the same way she always did when she was about to pester him with a stream of questions, but he looked up from the stone he was carving with nothing but patience in his jade eyes._

_"_ _Yes?" Bane pressed good-naturedly, setting down his little statue._

_"_ _What does it mean to be in love?" Talia asked curiously. She held up the book she was reading and said, "In here, it says that the man was in love with the woman. How is that different from simply… loving her?"_

_Bane sighed deeply and looked as though he were going to have difficulty saying what he needed to explain. "When two people care very, very deeply for one another, in a way that they care for no one else in all the world, then they are in love."_

_"_ _Oh," Talia nodded. "So, are we in love?"_

_Bane balked and made a choked noise. He looked like he was trying not to laugh, and Talia furrowed her brow angrily. "No, little one," he said at last. "You are too young to be in love."_

_"_ _Are you old enough to be in love?" Talia inquired, closing her book and eyeing Bane inquisitively._

_"_ _I suppose I am, though I never have been," Bane admitted._

_"_ _Someday, I want to be old enough to be in love with you," Talia said softly, her voice sad._

_Bane rose and smiled crookedly at her. "Someday, little one, you will love a man more deeply than you thought possible. And he will love you back, with all of his soul screaming at him to be near you. Then you will be in love. And that man will be the luckiest creature to ever walk the Earth."_

* * *

**Sanctuary**

* * *

_Talia narrowed her eyes. "What does this mean?" she asked Bane, who sat beside her, teaching her the difficult task of reading in English. "'he lay with her as a man does with a woman…'"_

_Bane's cheeks reddened and he looked embarrassed. He shifted on his seat and pursed his lips. "Perhaps I ought to have chosen a text more suitable for one as young as you, little one," he said, and his condescending tone made Talia angry. "I don't think I should explain…"_

_"_ _What does it mean?" Talia demanded._

_"_ _Someday a man will show you. When you're a woman," he answered, looking very uncomfortable. Talia couldn't understand why he was made to feel so awkward by the words in the book._

_"_ _You're a man," she reminded him simply. "Will you show me… when I'm a woman?"_

_"_ _No." Bane shook his head firmly._

_"_ _Why not?" Talia pouted, crossing her arms over her chest._

_"_ _Talia…" Bane sighed, shaking his head and biting his lip. He shut his eyes and tipped his head against the stone wall in frustration. "Just keep reading, else I will snuff the candle and we will be finished with the book for the night."_

_Talia furrowed her eyebrows angrily but kept reading the words on the page, wondering in her mind what it was that a man would have to teach her, and why it was that Bane refused to do it._

"So, Talia, what on Earth happened to Aashir?"

Talia nearly choked on her porridge as another female initiate, a tall brunette named Najaah, set her bowl on the table and sat anxiously. Najaah was the twin sister of Aashir, the man that Bane had brutally beaten the day before. Talia did not often speak to Najaah, for she seemed too full of herself given that she'd only been around for a few months. Najaah's reputation was that she was quick, like her twin brother, but when it came down to brawn, she couldn't hold a flame to most of the male initiates. Talia had not had the opportunity of fighting Najaah herself, so she could not speak to the other woman's abilities.

"What happened to Aashir?" Najaah asked again, spooning hot porridge into her mouth and eyeing Talia curiously.

"Didn't he tell you?" Talia asked with a twinge of disbelief.

"All he would say," mumbled Najaah as she swallowed her porridge, "is that he was fighting with Bane and was a bit outmatched."

"Well…" Talia considered how much more information than that was necessary for Najaah to know. "Then it sounds like he told you what happened."

Najaah narrowed her almond-shaped eyes. Her irises were black as onyx and impossible to read. She took a swig of water and said, "But why was he fighting Bane in the first place? Sparring around here doesn't  _usually_  result in broken ribs. Brawling, on the other hand…"

"Aashir's got a broken rib?" Talia felt her eyebrows rise with a greater exhibition of surprise than she was hoping to express.

"And he lost two teeth, and he sprained his elbow." Najaah nodded gravely. She glanced over to where Bane sat alone, reading. Of course, he did not eat with the other initiates because of his mask, but he often read texts like  _The Art of War_  while preparing for the day's fights. "Bane doesn't look too much worse for the wear," Najaah noted. She turned to Talia accusingly. "Aashir says you were there – that you watched all of this happen. Tell me, Talia… why did Bane attack my brother?"

Najaah's head tipped to the side, and all of a sudden the older girl looked rather dangerous. Talia gulped and realized she might as well just tell the truth.

"Your  _brother_ ," Talia said, her voice almost a growl, "bragged to Bane that he could kiss me if he wanted to, because he doesn't have a mask on his face. This provoked Bane into attacking him. Bane only stopped because I threw myself in front of Aashir."

Najaah was silent for a long moment then. She stared deeply into Talia's sapphire eyes, searching for something – Talia wasn't sure what, exactly.

"My brother has had a crush on you for a long time, you know," Najaah said finally, eating another spoonful of porridge.

"Well, infuriating the man who's been my friend since I was a child is not the way to win my favor," Talia countered stiffly. She blew on her own food to cool it, though she was no longer hungry. She watched Bane scan the text he was reading, his eyes flicking up toward her as he realized he was being watched. His jade gaze widened when he saw both Talia and Najaah staring, and both girls looked away quickly.

"I would advise you to stay away from my brother," said Najaah, and Talia narrowed her eyes in surprise at the older girl. She shook her head, confused, as Najaah continued, "Aashir has broken many hearts in his day. He does not seem to understand the concept of fidelity very well. Nor does he seem to understand that he can't have everything he wants. He won't be willing to compete with Bane for you."

Talia was about to ask how Najaah knew that Aashir would be competing with the masked man for Talia's attentions, but then she realized that the attraction between herself and Bane must be rather obvious. Even if people only thought them to be friends, it was clear that their relationship was closer than that which any other two initiates shared. It was a small wonder that Ra's al Ghul strove so hard to keep his daughter from Bane. Talia may not have liked her father's actions, but she could see his motive.

Aashir remained in the infirmary for six days, and when he came out he was to be on a limited training schedule due to his healing rib and elbow. The day that Aashir was released from the infirmary, as Bane sparred with Talia, he muttered,

"Before he left yesterday, your father chastised me rather severely for beating Aashir."

"And… what did you say to my father?" Talia asked in response, as she assumed a cat stance and aimed a roundhouse kick at Bane's head. Bane ducked, too late, and her foot contacted the side of his head. Talia smirked and Bane's eyes darkened with suppressed anger. In response to her kick, Bane shoved Talia by the shoulder to knock her off balance, and then swept his foot behind her knees to trip her. She landed hard on her back, crashing onto the concrete floor, and the wind was knocked swiftly out of her. She attempted to listen to him speak as she tried to catch her breath, her ears ringing.

"I told him that Aashir was filthy and crude with you and that I was protecting your honor," Bane said smugly. He stared down at where Talia lay on the ground, struggling to breathe after landing so roughly on her back. "Get up, Talia; you're vulnerable lying on the ground like that."

His breath came quick and shallow through his mask from the exertion of fighting, and his chest heaved as he planted his hands on the wide brace around his waist. Talia scanned her eyes over him as she pushed herself up onto her elbows and blinked through the pain. She gulped, thinking that he looked awfully attractive like this, his brawny form bare and towering above her. She fought the urge to press herself against him like a cat in heat, but she felt her cheeks redden and grow warm, and she stared at the ground in embarrassment.

"Talia," Bane said, his voice a bit gentler, "have I hurt you?"

"No."

"Then get up," he said again, and when she did not, when her cheeks reddened even more deeply and she said nothing, Bane crouched down beside her. He tipped her chin up so that her sapphire eyes met his. "I could have killed you ten times over in the time you've been splayed here on the ground," he said, his eyebrows cocking crookedly. "Did you hit your head on the floor, little one?"

Talia shook her head no, breathing heavily through her nose and feeling her cheeks burn. Bane looked confused. He combed his fingers gently through Talia's hair, brushing away a few stray locks that had fallen from her ponytail. He felt her shudder when his fingertips touched her face, and then a look of realization crossed his jade eyes. They suddenly flashed with an expression of want. His hand pressed more firmly against the side of her face.

"Not here, Talia," he whispered, shaking his head slowly. "Not now."

"I can't help it," Talia answered, her voice trembling. "I can't help wanting you, Bane." She reached out to stroke the cold tubes of his mask, feeling the harsh metal scratch her fingertips and the rush of his breath against her skin. Bane reached up to cover her fingers with his and pull her hand gently away from his face. Then he pushed himself from the ground and stood, towering above where Talia still lay on her back.

"Perhaps we should take a short break from the sparring," Bane suggested.

Talia heaved herself to her feet, confused. She was not sure what he meant. A break? What sort of break… for midday meal? For a few weeks, to get away from one another? A break could mean anything. Talia swallowed hard with trepidation and eyed Bane with fear in her wide gaze.

"Your father has gone to New Delhi," Bane reminded Talia. "Don't you have some reading you might like to get in this afternoon while the weather is so rainy and chilly?" His eyes sparkled, and Talia began to understand his implications.

"There will be no one close to my room," she whispered, awe in her voice, and Bane nodded.

"I will meet you there in a half hour," he said gently, his filtered voice crackling through his mask.

As Talia strode down the empty hallways, she overanxiously searched for eyes watching her walk to her room. Everyone was busy training or studying, and no one had any interest in where Talia was going at three-thirty in the afternoon. She threw open her bedroom door and left it unlocked for Bane.

The room was bathed in gray light, for the afternoon was cold and rainy. Water trickled down the windows in morose streams, the dull ashen light giving the space a somber glow. Talia quickly entered her bathroom and swept a washrag over her form, soaping away sweat and grime from fighting. She spritzed herself with perfume her father had once brought her from Paris, and she raked a comb through her hair.

She pulled the blankets tighter on her bed so that it looked more skillfully made. In the prison where Bane had raised her, there had been cell inspections, and they'd been required to keep their little bed neatly made. She knew Bane did not like a messy bed.

Then she paced.

She walked around the room, wringing her hands like a foolish infatuated girl, thinking back to the day a week prior… when Bane had told her he was in love with her and held her hand and taken off his mask to kiss her. She thought to before that, when she'd ground her hips against him and both of them had been brought to the pinnacles of their pleasure.

Talia felt her cheeks reddening again as she stood alone in her room, as memories of her interactions with Bane flooded her mind. Even their times sparring had done little to calm her desires. Every time she grappled with him, each time they wound up wrestling on the ground, she wanted nothing more than to mount him and start grinding again. When he had her pinned, she wanted him to claim her. It was all instinct kicking in; it was her body screaming at her to do what seemed natural and right and gratifying. She had to reject those screams. She had to ignore the very real craving she had for Bane and fight him for hours a day. Today had been a point where she'd been weak. He'd tripped her up and knocked the wind out of her, and as she'd lain helpless on the ground and he'd towered above her, she had realized just how badly she wanted – needed – him.

Her door creaked open slowly just then, and Bane's hulking form slithered into her room. He locked the door wordlessly behind him and turned to face Talia. Suddenly the little room was filled with his aroma, a tang of salt and sweat and leather and metal. It only served to bolster the moisture that had already started to blossom between Talia's thighs. She swallowed hard and stared at him, feeling her knees shake a bit beneath her.

The only sounds she could hear were the pattering of rain outside her window and the steady rush of Bane's breath coming through his mask.

"Talia," he whispered softly, clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides, "I…"

He seemed to have something prepared to say, but appeared to lose his nerve. He gulped and looked away from her, toward the bed and then at his feet.

Talia closed the gap between them and placed her hands on his shoulders. She slinked her arms around his neck and leaned up to kiss his jaw, just under his mask. That simple action seemed to give Bane a measure of confidence, and he sighed deeply before he wrapped his arms around Talia's back and murmured,

"It is difficult for me to touch you every day… while sparring… and never touch you like  _this_."

Talia smiled against his bare chest, nuzzling her satin lips against his pectoral muscle and breathing hot air onto his skin. Bane shuddered.

" _This_ … and so much more, Talia… is how I want to touch you, and how you are meant to be touched." Bane tightened his grip a bit on her back, taking handfuls of the material of her tunic in his large fists and then releasing them, slithering his fingers under the hem of the shirt and gliding them over her back. He moaned a little at the feel of her silky skin, his low voice vibrating through the mask.

"Do you remember when I asked you what it meant for a man to lie with a woman?" Talia asked suddenly, her breath searing and her voice quiet against his chest.

"Yes," Bane whispered after a long moment, and his hands did not stop their course around her flesh.

"You said you would never show me," Talia reminded him sadly.

"I did say that," Bane acknowledged, and Talia felt his head nod.

"Have you changed your mind?" Talia asked hopefully, raising her eyes to look up at him through her thick lashes. Bane looked down and her and sighed deeply. His hands stilled against her back.

"I will not take your virginity, little one," he told her, shaking his head cautiously.

Suddenly Talia pulled away from him, an angry look in her blue eyes. How dare he…

"How is it any better to… to  _play_  with me?" she demanded, and Bane looked genuinely offended.

"I love you, Talia," he whispered defensively, his voice a mechanical crackle.

Talia stamped her foot in frustration. She stormed over to the bed and sat upon it, staring up at the man who had once been her protector. "Bane," she said as calmly as she could, speaking through gritted teeth, "Think of it this way. You are doing everything  _but_  taking my virginity. Think of what we have already done. I will not be your plaything… even if you do love me."

"Then I will gladly leave you be. I'm very sorry if that is how you perceived any of this." Bane's eyes shone with anger and hurt and he turned away from Talia as if he were about to go.

"Wait."

Bane looked over his shoulder.

"I would be yours," Talia said quietly, her voice softening, "Wholly and completely. I do not wish to give myself to any other man. I love you, Bane. I wish to give myself to  _you_. You told me that one day a man would love me and that I would love him in return. You also told me that one day a man would show me how it is that a man and a woman lie together. Why should that not be the same man? Why can it not be you? It was always meant to be you, Bane… don't you understand?"

By this time, silent tears were pouring from Talia's cerulean eyes, and her hands gripped her knees tightly. Bane wordlessly sank onto the bed beside Talia and reached to stroke her dark curls.

"I don't want to hurt you, little one," he whispered gently, "and it will hurt."

"I'm sure I've had worse," Talia sniffed, giving Bane a sad, crooked little smile.

"Yes, I'm sure you have." Bane nodded seriously, and Talia leaned into his hand. "I do want you, Talia… so badly," he promised in a shaky voice.

"Then take me," she commanded him softly, reaching to ghost her fingertips down his bare chest until they reached the waistband of his drawstring pants.

He stared at her for a long moment, his green eyes searching her blue ones, and he seemed to be considering his options. He sighed, very deeply, and finally whispered, "Lie down, Talia."

Talia shivered at his words, at the sudden resolve she heard in them. Indeed, Bane's eyes looked resolute and unquestionable as he watched her slither up onto the bed and slink onto her back against the pillows. She began to unbutton her tunic and pushed it off of her torso, very slowly, while he watched. Then she pulled herself out of her linen drawstring pants and tossed them away, absently seeing them land somewhere beside the bed. Her panties and bra followed, and then she lay naked and waiting for him, propped against her down pillows. Her nipples hardened in the chilly air, partly from the cold and partly from the excitement of Bane watching her undress.

All the while, his breath came trembling but slow through his mask, and his eyes burned as they watched her. She heard him kick off his boots and watched his thick fingers untie the drawstring at his waist, and when he stood, he slid his pants down over his thighs and let them fall to the ground.

Talia felt a rush of moisture when she saw him, thick and throbbing and glistening at the tip. He was ready for her, but she was not at all certain that she was ready for him. She had heard female initiates say that there would be bleeding the first time, that it would hurt and stretch and wouldn't feel good the way it would subsequent times. Talia didn't care. She just wanted to be one with him, to feel him inside of her and know that he had joined with her in a way that could never be taken back.

Bane stepped, naked and glorious, into Talia's bathroom and returned after a moment with a few rags. Talia was going to ask what they were for, but then Bane brought them to the bed and held all but one them out to her reverently.

"Put these under your hips," he said very gently, as if he were trying to be as delicate about the whole thing as he could be. Talia blushed and slid the rags under her bottom, so that they would catch any blood from the coupling.

Bane perched himself above her, and Talia began to breathe quickly, wondering if he was just going to push himself right into her, but then he sat back on his knees and gazed down at her with an affectionate warmth in his green eyes. He began stroking her décolleté, his rough fingertips like sandpaper on her silky skin, and then his hands drifted down to the swells of her breasts. He cupped them and squeezed gently, his thumbs grazing over her hard nipples playfully.

Talia tipped her head back and a little sound of delight escaped her lips. She whispered his name, just once, but it was enough to cause him to sigh happily. His hands continued to drift downward, over the soft curve of her waist and hips, and coming to rest between her thighs. He urged her legs apart and began to very gently play with her there, causing Talia to gasp and grow even more wet. His rough fingers caressed her folds and massaged her Venus mound; his thumb fiddled with her nub and one finger hooked inside of her to find the perfect spot to trigger her pleasure. Talia felt her back arch and her eyes rolled back in her head a bit. She growled quietly through gritted teeth as her delight mounted, and she heard Bane's breath quickening through his mask as he watched her reactions.

Finally, Talia fell off the cliff. Her ears rang, her cheeks flushed hotter than she knew they could, her throat went suddenly dry, and her heart felt as though it would pound out of her chest. Her muscles clamped around Bane's fingers and it was all she could do to keep from screaming his name over and over. Instead, she whispered it feverishly, as if lost in a hallucination.

When she finally came down from her high and opened her eyes, she was staring into Bane's own jade gaze. His cold metal mask was just inches from her face as he hovered above her. Talia realized that she'd had her turn; that it was his turn now and that their joining was to occur. She felt Bane nudge her legs open with his knee and felt the tip of his manhood press between her legs. She gulped heavily and felt her eyes widen with unwanted fear.

"Talia," Bane whispered, sensing her anxiety, "are you  _very_  certain this is what you want?"

"Yes," she nodded firmly. "I want  _you_ , Bane. All of you."

Bane stared for a long moment into Talia's blue eyes. "I love you, little one."

Then Talia felt a pushing sensation and she felt her body resisting him. She felt her walls clench, but not in the same way they had when she'd had an orgasm. This time, they seemed to be trying to keep Bane out. As he resolutely pushed into her body, Talia felt a tearing and ripping that sent pain shooting through her entire body, a stinging sensation coursing through her veins. She gritted her teeth and struggled not to cry or make a sound.

"Are you all right?" Bane asked cautiously after a very long moment. He sounded out of breath, as if he'd been struggling to control himself. He was leaning on his elbows, one on either side of Talia's head, and his mask was just inches from her face.

"I'm fine," Talia lied, her hands gripping the coverlet tightly. She felt blood trickling from her body and was thankful for the rags that Bane had fetched. She felt Bane urge her legs higher up, so that they were wrapped around his waist, and she locked her ankles together behind her back.

"Good girl," he said quietly, and with a grunt he began to pull out of her. Talia squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block the pain.

She was lost then as Bane began to thrust very gently in and out of her body. At first it stung and hurt so badly that Talia could scarcely breathe. But Bane's hands were tangled in her hair and his voice was soothing her with gentle words and coos telling her she was beautiful, and so she didn't mind the pain at all. Long moments passed in which all she could feel was his member slipping in and out, over and over again, and his fingers massaging her scalp. All she could hear was the soft sound of the rain outside and the gentle hum of his loving words. It was… flawless, especially when the pain began to subside. Talia eventually opened her eyes and saw that a few silent tears had tumbled from Bane's jade gaze. Each time he thrust his body forward, into Talia, he shook and trembled with emotion and passion.

"I love you, Talia," he said once more as he continued to move above her, more fervently now that her eyes were open. "You are… so…  _perfect_ …"

He gasped as he murmured the last word, and then he pulled himself rather anxiously out of Talia's body. She was about to ask what was wrong, but then he sat back on his knees and gripped his member. He reached for the spare rag he'd left for himself and held it beneath his manhood, shutting his eyes and shuddering as he came onto the cloth. He rose and tossed the rag into Talia's laundry, then walked silently around the bed to pull on his linen drawstring pants.

Meanwhile, Talia wiped herself clean self-consciously using the rags and tossed them into the laundry hamper. She tucked herself beneath the coverlet, between the sheets, and thought that she would take a shower later since she wasn't expected at evening meal until seven o'clock. For now, she was absolutely exhausted.

Bane wordlessly crawled into the bed beside Talia, and she snuggled her body tightly against his.

Talia yawned widely as Bane tucked her head against his chest. "It was always supposed to be you," she said again, as she had earlier. "It could never have been anyone else."

"I want to be the one to love you," Bane responded softly, "because I promise you, little one, I already love you more deeply than any other man could hope to do."

Talia kissed his chest. Perhaps he said something else. Perhaps he didn't. She had no idea, for she had drifted off to sleep, right there in the middle of the afternoon, before she could hear another word.


	3. Chapter 3

**Someone**

Talia leaned against the stone wall of the training room a week later and grasped her left ankle. She gently pulled her heel up and back until she felt a stretch in the front of her thigh, and she held the stretch for a good thirty seconds before switching sides and repeating the motion.

She lowered herself to the cold, hard floor and pulled her left knee up against her chest. When she felt a stretch in her lower back, she stopped pulling, holding the knee against her chest for thirty seconds and then switching sides.

It was her daily stretching routine, one she repeated before any sparring endeavor. She always got to the training room early enough that she could stretch alone, in peace, with time to think in the dank silence of the room. As she sat up, she brought her left arm across her body and held it with her right arm above the elbow, stretching her shoulder. She inhaled deeply as she stretched, focusing her mind and her breath on the task of training.

She was jarred from her single-minded concentration by the sound of the heavy wooden door creaking open. Expecting to see Bane in the threshold, Talia prepared to tell him he was early, but instead of her protector-turned-lover, she saw her father standing in the doorway.

He smiled gently at her and stepped into the dim light of the training room.

"Good morning, daughter," he said softly.

"Father," Talia acknowledged with a respectful nod. When she made a move to rise from the floor, Ra's al Ghul motioned for her to remain where she was and continue stretching. "Back so soon from New Delhi?" Talia asked.

"My task was completed more quickly than was expected," Ra's said cryptically. He rubbed at the scruff on his chin and said, "You're to have a different training partner for a while. I've already spoken with Bane this morning."

Talia struggled to control her outward emotion, but her heart pounded. She swallowed and wondered what her father's motivation was. "All right," Talia said simply. "Who is it?"

"Najaah, the sister of Aashir," Ra's informed her. His aquamarine eyes glinted a bit as he waited for her response. Talia tried to give none, but she did verbally protest,

"Father, she is even weaker than her brother."

"So she is," Ra's nodded. "Aashir is back in shape enough that he will train with Bane. If he can not do so, and if Najaah can not hold her own against you, then the two of them will have demonstrated that they do not have a place in the League of Shadows."

 _So,_  Talia thought harshly,  _if Najaah and Aashir can not train with Bane and myself, then they will be gone. Aashir, that pest who's done nothing but flirt with me and mock Bane, could be gone, along with his obnoxious sister. It is up to Bane and me to boot them out of here. That should be easy enough._

"On the other hand," Ra's al Ghul continued, taking Talia from her thoughts, "If Aashir is able to defeat Bane, and Najaah able to defeat you, in regular practice, then perhaps it is you and Bane who require re-evaluation. After all, the two of you have had many hours of practice together. If you are not able to defeat Aashir and Najaah, I would need to determine why neither of you would have seemed to have made adequate progress."

"You know very well, Father, that Bane will destroy Aashir with his fists," Talia said haughtily, rising to her feet and putting her hands on the hips of her black linen tunic. Ra's al Ghul grinned crookedly.

"Aashir and Bane will be training with the bamboo sword, which, as I recall, is an area of particular expertise for Aashir," her father informed her. "As for Najaah… do not underestimate her kickboxing skills. Ah… here she comes now." Ra's glanced out the doorway as though he saw someone approaching down the hallway. Najaah stepped through the threshold, nodding politely at Ra's al Ghul.

Her inky black hair fell from her crown in a high, silky ponytail. Her dark almond eyes glittered with determination, glowing as they stood out from her caramel skin.

"Good morning, Talia," Najaah nodded, though she hardly sounded friendly. Talia simply nodded in response. "Already stretched and ready?" Najaah asked, and Talia nodded again.

"Go ahead and begin when you're ready, ladies," Ra's al Ghul commanded, shutting the door behind him and stepping into the room to observe their scrap.

Talia got into a fighting stance, putting one arm up to protect her face and the other arm a little lower to protect her body. She had hardly settled into her stance when she was struck with a straight jab from Najaah. She didn't have time to react, and the punch struck her left cheekbone. She hissed in anger and quickly reacted with a cross punch. She missed, and Najaah threw an uppercut that struck Talia's jaw. Talia grasped Najaah's wrist and twisted hard, but as Talia was twisting, Najaah threw her other hand into a hook shot, punching in a circular motion with her lead hand as her legs rushed forward.

Najaah's right knee thrust up into Talia's abdomen, and Talia furiously hooked her arm under Najaah's knee and managed to trip the other girl, sending her crashing to the floor. She heard her father laugh from behind them, seemingly amused at how closely matched the two young women were. Talia knew this was her chance to get Najaah to submit; she had her opponent on the ground, and now was the time to act, before Najaah could get back up. She leapt atop Najaah, mounting her with a leg on either side of her waist, and clasped her knees down onto Najaah's biceps.

Najaah growled in frustration and squirmed beneath Talia but was completely pinned. Her black eyes glittered with anger, and Talia was suddenly overcome with rage. She was not certain why; she had little reason to distinctly hate this woman, but she felt nothing for her other than hate in this moment. Perhaps it was because of how her father had mocked her. Perhaps it was because her father had associated Talia's potential failure against Najaah with a failed training against Bane. In any case, Talia  _needed_  to defeat Najaah. There was no alternative. So she began pummeling Najaah's face while she pinned down the older girl's arms with her knees. Talia's fists pounded, one after the other, against Najaah's jaws and face, until blood started leaking from her nose and Najaah finally cried out,

"Fine, Talia! You've won!"

Talia threw her hands up and began crawling off of Najaah. She wiped Najaah's blood from her hands and stood, and Najaah heaved herself off of the ground. Both young women looked to Ra's al Ghul.

"We shall try again tomorrow morning," Ra's said. "I've got a lot of other things to do today. Najaah, go to the infirmary and get that nose and jaw cleaned up. Talia, come with me. We're going to go watch Bane fight."

He turned to leave without another word, and Talia began to follow him anxiously. Behind them, Najaah asked,

"May I come see my brother, sir?"

"I've just told you where to go," Ra's al Ghul answered simply, continuing out the door.

Talia followed her father through the doorway and down the hallway. On other side of the corridor, there were additional training rooms, in which Talia could hear initiates grunting and groaning as they fought. Finally, they reached a heavy wooden door that Ra's al Ghul heaved open, and inside stood Bane and Aashir, facing one another in a silent standoff.

The two men held bamboo  _shinai_ , and Ra's chuckled under his breath when he and his daughter entered the room.

"Well, you look positively ready to begin, then," Ra's said. "You'll be delighted to note, Bane, that Talia handily defeated Najaah. I'm sorry to inform you of this news, Aashir." He sounded absolutely giddy as he spoke, and Talia began to realize just how amused this entire scheme was making her father – just how manipulative Ra's al Ghul was.

Bane's hand gripped his  _shinai_  more tightly. Aashir stared at Talia. He did not look at her with the same smarmy, cocky expression he'd used in the past. He looked a bit angrier, a bit more determined. One of his eyes was still healing from being blackened and had shadows of green and purple around it. His angular face shifted as he gritted his teeth.

"Well?" Ra's al Ghul held his hands out expectantly. "Let's see, then, gentlemen."

Aashir and Bane touched the tips of their  _shinai_  together to begin the parry. Just as Bane stepped forward and raised his sword, Aashir struck low, hitting Bane's hand and making a contact before Bane could even swing. Bane swore under his breath, his curse hissing through his mask and echoing off the stone walls of the training room.

Talia chewed on her lip anxiously. The men started over and this time it was Aashir who stepped forward first, raising his sword high above his head and swinging so fast and hard that Bane didn't have time to block him. Aashir's  _shinai_  swung downwards diagonally and to the left and hit Bane atop the head, which just looked rather silly.

" _Fuck!"_ Bane yelled, more loudly this time, and Aashir began to look smug. It would only take one more contact before Aashir would have won the match. Bane was strong, but the  _shinai_  was not a weapon of strength. It was one of agility, of speed and of sprightliness. Talia had a feeling that Aashir would not make this a dignified loss for Bane.

She was right.

The two men lined their  _shinai_  up again, and then Aashir took a hurried and giant leap backward. He swung his  _shinai_  back up over his head. Bane tried to take the opportunity to strike, but Aashir was too fast. He swung his  _shinai_  as hard as he could directly at Bane's mask.

It was the same thing that Talia had done to Bane with her own bamboo sword, though she'd done it by accident. Aashir had done it on purpose. It was all Talia could do to keep from crying. She watched helplessly as Bane staggered backwards, frantically trying to reattach the pipes that had been knocked loose by Aashir's  _shinai_. He made a choked sort of noise and his back hit the stone wall, his fingers fumbling with the tubes that fed him anesthetic.

Beside her, Talia's father sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead, as though he could not believe he'd put his faith in a man so dependent on medication. In front of her, Aashir chuckled under his breath at the sight of Bane struggling mightily with the contraption strapped to her face. Enraged by the reactions of the two men, Talia rushed forward toward Bane and urged his trembling fingers away from his mask. She began to screw the conduits back into place, but then she saw the self-conscious look in his jade eyes, and he angrily pushed her hands away.

"You don't know what you're doing," he said roughly. "Let me do it, Talia."

Hurt and upset, Talia stumbled away from him, back toward her father. Ra's al Ghul put his hands on Talia's shoulders, and Talia didn't know that she'd ever felt so unwelcome a feeling as that of her father's touch at that moment. Ra's began to guide Talia from the training room. The last thing she saw before she stepped through the doorway was Bane, gasping in deep breaths full of anesthetic, and Aashir, laughing malevolently at what he'd done to the man Talia loved.

In the middle of the night, Talia lay alone in her bed, thinking back to the week before when things had seemed so perfect. Here, right here upon these sheets, Bane had made love to her. He'd told her she was perfect; he'd claimed her for his own.

Today, everything had been shattered… by her father. He'd obliquely threatened both her and Bane; he'd hinted that he suspected there was something amok in their training. Bane had lost miserably with the  _shinai_  and had been humiliated in front of Talia.

She tried to fall back asleep, but the claps of thunder outside and the bright flashes of lightning made it difficult. Talia thought back to an instance in the Pit where it had been storming like this, and she'd been terrified, for it had rarely stormed in the desert. Of course, it had been Bane who'd brought her comfort then.

_"_ _Aaaagh!"_

_Bane chuckled from across the cell, where his solitary candle flickered meekly. "It's only thunder and lightning, little one," he said calmly. "It will not harm you. Not while I'm here."_

_Talia trembled where she lay on the small bed. "W-what makes the thunder and lightning?"_

_"_ _Well, you see, little one," Bane said, closing his book and edging toward the squat bed, "Long ago, there was no rain at all in the desert. Nothing at all grew. Then, one day, a fox wandered into the desert."_

_"_ _A fox?" Talia asked. "Like the creatures I've seen in my books?"_

_"_ _Just like them," Bane nodded. "The fox wandered into the desert, and he could find neither food nor water there. So he lay down on the ground and he looked up to the sky and howled desperately. The spirits in the sky heard him howling so loudly that they had to drown out his yelps and sobs, for his howling made them so sad that that they began to cry. And their tears were the rain. And the sounds that they made to drown out the fox's pitiful wailing… that was the thunder. Then, the spirits in the sky needed to make sure that things below were still growing, even when the clouds had made it too dark to see. So they flashed light to see that the rain was making things grow… and that was the lightning. More animals had followed the fox into the desert, so there was need for more rain, and more thunder, and more lightning. So, to this day, those things continue, even in the desert."_

_"_ _Oh." Talia had nodded. It seemed a bit far-fetched… ridiculous, even. In fact, Talia was relatively certain that Bane had made the entire story up just for her. But it still made her feel a little bit better, to think of a hungry, thirsty fox wandering the desert, having his cries answered by spirits in the sky._

Talia was jolted awake by the sound of her bedroom door creaking open. She half-expected to see her father standing in the doorway, just as she had seen him standing in a threshold earlier that day. But then she heard the steady, slow rush of breath through a filter, and she knew that it was Bane in the darkness. Her suspicion was confirmed when a flash of lightning glinted off the metal of his mask. He shut the door silently behind him and locked it quietly, stepping slowly into Talia's bedroom.

"Hello," Talia whispered, trying not to sound grumpy.

Bane said nothing. He was shirtless and barefoot, wearing only a pair of dark drawstring pants and his mask. He peeled back the blankets of Talia's bed and slithered between the sheets beside her. Talia wanted to ask what was wrong, for he still said nothing. He just inhaled deeply as he pressed his mask against the back of her head, burying it in her dark curls. He slinked his arms around her form, and the skin of his large hands was hot through the thin material of her cotton pajamas. He pressed his palms against her breasts through her shirt, and Talia's breath hitched in her throat.

"I'm sorry," he whispered finally.

"For… for what?" Talia asked, her voice snagging. Thunder clapped outside and she startled. When she flinched, Bane's hands tightened around her, sliding down to the hem of her shirt and hiking it up so that his fingers could glide against her bare skin.

"I'm sorry that I pushed you away earlier," Bane said. "I was ashamed. I did not want help."

"I understand," Talia nodded, and it was the truth. She felt her shaky breath quicken as Bane's fingertips reached her exposed, hardened nipples and fiddled with them. He groaned a little through his mask, and Talia felt his stiffness pressing against her back. "Will you take me again?" she prodded him quietly.

He was silent for a long moment. "When did you last bleed?" he asked her awkwardly.

Talia rotated on the sheets to face him and furrowed her eyebrow in embarrassed confusion. "What?"

"Your… cycle. When did you last bleed?" Bane looked just as embarrassed as Talia. She finally answered,

"Two weeks ago, I suppose."

"Then, no. Not tonight." Bane shook his head firmly and continued, "It's not worth the risk, even if I… no. I can't put a child in you, Talia."

"Aren't there ways…?" Talia's voice trailed off. She thought she had heard female initiates mention pills that could be taken and things called condoms that could be used to prevent pregnancy, but of course they didn't have any of those things tonight, in this bedroom.

"Not tonight, little one," Bane said again.

"Then… just let me please you," Talia begged, reaching between Bane's legs to ghost her fingertips over the hardness that had lagged a bit since they'd started talking. At her touch, he firmed back up again, sighing deeply through his mask as his hands clutched at her shoulders. Her little fingers quickly untied his drawstring and began pulling his pants down over his hips, urging him to lie on his back. Bane settled against Talia's pillows, a flash of lighting illuminating his mask as a clap of thunder masked another sigh.

She peeled back the blankets and beheld his erection, taut and long and thick. She began to stroke it gently, and in response Bane thrashed his head a bit against the pillow. Talia grew a bit excited by his response and moved her hand more firmly against him, gripping him more securely in her fingers as she glided her hand in a swirling motion. Soon enough, a pearl of fluid glistened at the tip, illuminated by the white flashes of lightning. Fascinated, Talia slowly lowered herself toward Bane's erection until her lips were upon the tip, and then she parted her lips and pushed the tip between them, into the warm wetness of her mouth. She swirled her tongue curiously around the tip of Bane's cock, tasting his flesh, and pushed him as deeply as she could against the back of her throat.

Bane's response was immediate and fierce. His back arched, his huge hands clutched ferociously at the sheets, and he grunted like a beast. He panted desperately through his mask, his heavy breathing veiled by the sound of the increasingly dense rain outside the window.

Talia liked his response. She liked how much he seemed to enjoy this; she liked how out of control of himself he was. So she fondled the orbs at the base of his shaft with one hand, and she used the other to pump his shaft while she followed with her mouth. Her hand moved in an up-and-down, swirling motion, while her mouth took him as deeply as she could again and again. His tip kept touching the back of her throat, and each time it did she made a swallowing motion as if she were trying to gulp down his entire cock. Meanwhile, her tongue swirled and licked and moved inside of her mouth, pleasuring his tip.

Talia was doing what came naturally, but she was moving in a frenzy. She couldn't help herself after a while. It was as if she couldn't get enough of him. He was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted, and she herself was more aroused by the experience of giving him pleasure than she'd ever been. She was moaning onto him, perhaps more loudly than she should have been, her voice vibrating against his skin in low, hungry hums.

Meanwhile, Bane thrashed and moaned quietly and gasped, whispering Talia's name over and over. Finally, he tried desperately to pull her head off of him, and Talia knew that he was close to finishing. Something compelled her to taste him, even if the taste was unpleasant. She  _wanted_  him, wholly and completely, and so she cried, " _Hmm-mm!"_  when he tried to wrench her head from him. He sighed and groaned, and then his member pulsated and throbbed in Talia's hand. Her mouth was flooded with his essence, bitter and caustic, and she swallowed it as quickly as she could.

Talia slithered up the sheets, pulling Bane's pants back onto his body. She grinned at Bane and murmured teasingly, "There. All better. Is that what you came here for?"

"Not at all." Bane shook his head seriously. "I came here to apologize for being rude to you after I fought Aashir. That's all."

"No apology necessary." Talia smiled again, and they stared at one another for a long moment. Bane tucked a stray curl behind Talia's ear, and his jade eyes glittered.

"I love you, little one," he whispered.

Ten minutes later, after Talia had rinsed her mouth out and returned to bed, Bane was already asleep. She found that funny, that he'd completely collapsed into his pleasure and had fallen asleep in her bed. He'd never done that. Bane had never let himself go to the point where he would sacrifice either one of their securities so much as to fall asleep in Talia's bed, just down the hallway from her father… but here he was, sound asleep on his back, with Talia cuddling up beside him.

Just a few hours later, at four-thirty in the morning, Talia startled awake and found Bane sitting up beside her, wide-awake. She was hardly surprised to see him alert. She assumed that the previous night, he'd only drifted off to sleep for an hour or so in the wake of his intense gratification.

"I have to leave, Talia," Bane said, without any sort of greeting. The seriousness in his voice concerned Talia. "I've stayed far too long."

Talia nodded and swallowed heavily. "All right. I'll see you at breakfast."

Bane nodded. He'd come in only drawstring pants, so he rose from the bed and smoothed the material of his sparse clothing. He unlocked the bedroom door and his eyes flashed at Talia in such a way that she knew he was giving her a little smile. Then he opened the door cautiously and stepped slowly out into the hallway. The door did not close behind him, and Talia sat up slowly, worried.

"Good morning, Bane," she heard an amused voice say outside, and her heart froze.

"Good morning, Najaah."

* * *

**Sullied**

* * *

Talia felt her blood go cold in her veins as she realized she and Bane had been caught together. This wouldn't look good – him emerging from her room in the early morning hours clad in nothing but linen trousers.

"Najaah, why don't you step in here for a moment?" Talia heard Bane say tightly into the hallway, and she heard a chuckle from the other girl. Terrified, Talia flew from the bed and tossed the rumpled blankets over the mattress. She smoothed her own silky top and pants and stood nervously at the foot of the bed. It was not yet light, so she moved to flick on a lamp as Bane gestured for Najaah to enter the room.

Najaah glanced around, taking in Talia's relatively luxe accommodations with visible jealousy. The other initiates, Najaah included, did not have private bathrooms or large, soft beds. Only the daughter of Ra's al Ghul enjoyed such extravagances.

"This is not the situation you think it is," Bane said smoothly to Najaah as he left the door ajar behind them. Najaah gave both Bane and Talia skeptical looks, narrowing her eyes and planting her hands on her hips. She allowed Bane to continue, "You see, Najaah, Talia and I have a history that goes back to her childhood. We have been friends for a very long time, and yesterday I abused that friendship and was very rude to her when your brother defeated me in combat with the  _shinai_. I came here to apologize to Talia about being so rude. It was troubling me greatly as I attempted to sleep."

That was not an untruth, Talia thought to herself. That  _was_  why Bane had come here. But even Najaah thought that she'd not gotten the full story, and she narrowed her eyes further as she demanded,

"And what would Ra's al Ghul think of you being alone in her room with her in the middle of the night? What means did you use to apologize?" She tipped her head spitefully and thrust her bottom lip out in an insufferable sort of pout.

Talia shook with trepidation, but Bane coolly said, "I have spent many nights alone with Talia in my life, none of them passed doing anything… inappropriate. Ra's al Ghul is very well aware of that, and, anyway, I've not been here the whole night. Not that any of that is your business, of course."

"Of course." Najaah spat the words like they were poison, uncrossing her arms and balling them into fists at her sides. Only now did Talia see the shadows on her face from where, the day before, Talia had punched her face viciously. They were due to fight again in a few hours, and of course Talia would need to defeat her once more, but now she feared that doing so would spur Najaah to mention this ugly affair to Ra's al Ghul. As if she'd read Talia's mind, Najaah said venomously, "I'll see you in the training rooms in a few hours, Talia."

Then she turned to leave, and practically stomped from the room in her childish rage. Bane took one last look at Talia over his shoulder as he followed Najaah into the hallway. His sea green eyes were sad and fearful, as if he were thinking he never ought to have come to Talia's room at all.

"Come now, Talia; is that truly all you've got?"

Talia gritted her teeth against the pain of the impact of Najaah's last punch, which had made contact with her jaw. Najaah was fighting far better today than she had the previous day, as if she were far angrier today. Filled with her own anger, Talia squared herself and brought her leg up quickly into a swift and powerful roundhouse kick behind Najaah's legs, attempting to ground her opponent. Najaah kept her balance and reached to punch Talia again. Talia blocked the punch with her forearm and struck Najaah's bicep with her fist.

She used her other arm to punch Najaah's ribs, and the older girl responded with an "oof!" of pain. Talia did not stop, now fueled by her momentum. She brought her arm under Najaah's and turned toward the older girl, bending her knees and pulling Najaah onto her back. Then she flung Najaah around her torso with a neat little twist of her body such that Najaah landed hard on her back on the floor. As Najaah struggled to catch her breath, Talia seized the opportunity to kick the same spot on her ribs that she'd just punched, thus making it even harder for Najaah to breathe.

"Aaagh!" she heard Najaah moan as the girl tried in vain to stand. Talia stood above Najaah with a leg on either side of her shoulders and seized the front of Najaah's shirt. She began to punch Najaah's jaw, and Najaah reached up with her arms to try to push Talia's thighs away from her as hard as she could. Talia let go of her shirt and seized Najaah's wrist, squeezing and twisting the joint roughly. If she could just get Najaah to submit, this would all be over and she could go study in her room.

But Najaah was not giving up easily today, and eventually Talia felt Najaah's legs kick up and try to get Talia off of her that way. Talia pinned Najaah down more firmly and continued punching her jaw until she felt the skin on her own knuckles break open and her blood mingled with Najaah's as it dribbled onto the concrete floor of the training room.

Finally, Ra's al Ghul stepped into the fray, pulling Talia off of Najaah by the scruff of her top. There was too much blood, and Najaah was nearing unconsciousness, so he did not wish to let the fight continue.

"I've seen enough," he said under his breath. Talia breathlessly stepped away from Najaah, her hand hurting horribly. Talia shook her hand out, and Najaah struggled to pull herself off of the floor. "Najaah, to the infirmary… for the second day in a row," Ra's al Ghul said with a sigh, "then go pack your things. Transportation to the city will be arranged for you."

Najaah looked disappointed but not entirely surprised, and Talia thought that she actually looked as though she might begin to cry. Talia felt a strange twinge of regret for bearing the personal responsibility of sealing Najaah's fate, but then she realized that Najaah could still damn Talia on her way out the door, and her anger returned.

Najaah stalked – limped, rather – from the training room, shutting the heavy wooden door behind her. Talia's heart began to pound as she wondered if Najaah would reveal her damaging knowledge before she was forced to leave.

"As for you," Ra's al Ghul said harshly to Talia, who looked wide-eyed at her father in fear, "you've had enough training in combat. Your use to the League will be more heavily based in the art of deception, and so from now on your training is to be focused on that aspect of your worth. Your assignment is to develop for me a complete alias, one that would make even me believe you are who you say you are."

"An alias?" Talia was confused. Was her father saying that her missions would be ones in which she would be an actress of sorts?

"Backstories, charm, behaviors, speech… all of these must be mastered in order to convince the world you are the person you purport to be. Covert operations are just as important, just as difficult… just as  _dangerous_ … as anything involving brute force." Ra's al Ghul sighed. "Once you have figured how to do this, you will go on your first mission for me, Talia."

Talia's mind flashed to that thought, to the thought of leaving Bane to go on a mission without him, and her heart sank. So  _this_  was how her father would keep them apart – by sending them away from each other on assignments and by giving them vastly different responsibilities.

She would not allow it to be the end of them. She would find a way.

"I want you studying in your room for the rest of the day," Ra's al Ghul told his daughter, and she only distantly heard his words. "The next time I see you, do not tell me you are Talia. You are to be someone else, and you'd better convince me."

"Yes, Father," she said determinedly.

_"_ _Eat, little one."_

_Bane tipped his head against the stone as he slid down the wall, wearied from brawling to get food for Talia. Talia could see that his lip was bleeding and his cheekbone was already swollen, but he'd been successful in bringing her bread._

_She broke it in half and held out a piece for him, but Bane shook his head no._

_"_ _You are growing," he informed her matter-of-factly, "or, at least, you should be. You need it far more than I do. And you are innocent. You deserve it far more than I do."_

_"_ _But you fought hard to get it," Talia argued, still holding out the bread._

_"_ _That does not make me any more eligible to take food from a child," Bane whispered wearily, his eyes fluttering shut from exhaustion and hunger._

_Realizing that he was not going to take the bread, Talia began to eat it, a pit of guilt roiling her stomach as she filled it. She had noticed recently that Bane had been losing weight; he'd been eating less and diverting more of their meager rations to Talia. He always used the same logic: she was a growing girl and needed food more than he did, and because she'd not committed a crime, she deserved it far more than he did._

_Talia did not know what crime Bane had committed, but as she looked upon her protector's sunken face and depleted frame, she thought sadly to herself that it almost certainly did not demand his starvation._

_They had to get out of here, she thought, and soon._

Talia jotted down notes in a spiral notebook and flipped the page of the book she was reading on Yemeni culture. She tried to commit every detail of the alias she was crafting to her memory so deeply that, by three o'clock in the afternoon, she had very nearly convinced herself that she was Munira Ishmael from the seaport city of Aden in Yemen.

At half past three, there was a gentle knocking upon her bedroom door, and Talia gulped as she thought with a sinking feeling that perhaps Najaah  _had_  said something on her way out; perhaps it was her father here to chastise her, or worse.

"C-come in," she said, more meekly than she intended to. She glanced around at the sprawl of books and papers on her bed, where she sat cross-legged, and then back up at the door when it opened.

It was Bane, though he was more fully clothed this time than he'd been the last time he'd come into her room alone. He had on a thick black tunic, for the day was dank and cold, and a matching thick pair of pants.

"Hello," he said gently, his word muffled by the filter of his mask. He shut the door behind him and locked it with a click. Talia was surprised, to say the least, that he'd waltzed into her room so boldly, alone, in the middle of the afternoon, and she stared wide-eyed at him.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded rather harshly.

"Believe it or not, your father sent me," Bane said, sounding somewhat amused. "Najaah is gone, and she said nothing of this morning. Her brother chose to go with her. But, more to the point of why I'm here right now… you know, Talia, you never asked me why I was in the Pit in the first place."

He narrowed his eyes and took a step closer to the bed. Talia gulped.

"I didn't really want to know," she admitted, though she thought she was about to find out.

Bane nodded and crossed his arms over his broad chest. "In the life I led before being imprisoned, I deceived many people," he told her. "I was a very dishonest man. I was so very good at being dishonest, at living in charades, that I myself forgot who I was."

Talia glanced at the window, where the first raindrops of the afternoon were beginning to patter. They were having a very wet rainy season this year, she thought distantly as she tried to process Bane's words. He still hadn't told her what crime, exactly, had landed him in the Pit, but generally men did not end up there for things like petty theft. Talia gulped as she stared at the window, now streaked with rain, thinking once again that she did not really want to know the truth.

"Your father wants to make sure you are properly learning the art of deception," Bane said from beside the bed, "and I do not think he had ever met someone so deceptive as me."

That did not make Talia feel any better. Still, she knew what she knew, which was that she'd had years of personal experience with Bane. She did not care where he had been born, or what his given name was. She did not care what crimes he had committed or the circumstances under which they had been carried out. All she knew, all she cared about, was that Bane had saved her life and protected her in the hellish prison, and that he loved her now. Didn't he?

"Do you love me?" she asked dully, and she flicked her eyes over to him to see that he was furrowing his brow in confusion.

"Of course," Bane said, nodding firmly.

"Why should I believe you, if you are as deceptive as you claim to be?" Talia said bitterly, looking back at her reference book.

Bane rather angrily reached across the blankets on Talia's bed and slammed the book shut, startling her. She looked up at him, alarmed and irritated, and saw that his green eyes shone with indignation. Bane leaned onto his hands, hovering so near Talia that his mask was only inches from her face.

"You are the only person I have ever loved," he insisted, "and the only person to whom I do not make a habit of lying. Before you, Talia, I did not know what love was. I certainly did not know I was capable of experiencing it. To be painfully honest, you frightened me more than any enemy I had ever faced. And when I realized I was in love with you, it made me… angry. Angry with myself, with you. But now I see that I am perfectly helpless to it all. So, believe me or don't, Talia, but I love you."

Talia swallowed heavily, overcome with emotions she could not calibrate. She felt rather self-conscious, sitting cross-legged on the bed while Bane poured his heart out to her just inches away. She was flooded with a feeling of want, of desire for him, and so she let her body react before her mind could tell her to do differently. She clutched Bane's thick shoulders and pulled herself up onto her knees, nuzzling her face into his neck. She began to kiss him gently there, just barely peeking her tongue between her lips to stroke the sensitive skin, and she felt him shiver.

"Stop," she heard him command, and though Talia ceased her kisses, she did not move her face from his neck.

"Why?" she demanded, and her voice sounded hurt even to her own ears.

"That's not why I'm here," Bane reminded her curtly, pulling away from her and standing upright. Talia felt a sharp sting of rejection in her chest and felt abruptly embarrassed. Her cheeks grew hot with the shame of his denial. "I'm here to help you craft your alias."

"I don't need your help with that," Talia mumbled, absently placing her papers into neat piles and putting them into a stack with her thick books. "I think perhaps I shall take my work to the library."

Bane did not answer for a very long moment, a weighty pause during which Talia stood from the bed and made her way to the doorway with an armload of papers and books. But Bane stood in the doorway, blocking her exit. His eyes were cast down as if he was ashamed, and his breath shook through his mask.

"Do not think for a moment that I do not want you," he insisted quietly. "I just don't want you to think that's all you are to me."

Talia looked into his pale eyes and shook her head insistently. "I don't think that," she said, "and that's not all you are to me, either."

"I know." Bane's eyes seared with hunger and he whispered through his mask, "but I do want you. Badly. Right now." He saw the wicked little smile Talia flashed him and he cleared his throat, taking a step toward her so that she was forced to back up toward the bed. "Put the books down. We will work on your alias when we're done."

"Done with what?" Talia asked playfully, now grinning teasingly at him as she laid the stack of study materials at the foot of the bed.

It seemed all Bane could do in response was growl, and he watched wide-eyed as Talia turned to face him and began to unbutton her shirt. She went very slowly, taking her time with each button and lazily revealing her flesh to Bane. He seemed to have no patience whatsoever for her languid pace, and his eyes flashed as he snarled in a low voice,

"Do not tease me, little one. Take it off."

Talia giggled quietly as she flung the shirt up and over her head and let it fall to the ground. Bane closed the gap between them, and he deftly reached behind Talia to quickly unclasp her black bra and toss it away. Then he reached for the drawstring of her pants and pulled, shoving the pants and her underwear down and urging Talia to kick them off. She obliged, realizing that he was less in control of himself than he was letting on.

His breath was already jagged and quick as he tossed his own clothes away, standing nude before the awestruck Talia within a moment. Bane himself looked overwhelmed, his eyes quickly scanning over her naked form and his breathing growing ever more frantic as she watched his member grow at attention.

"May I please touch you?" he asked, his voice a desperate rasp as his green eyes met Talia's blue ones. She nodded eagerly, wanting nothing more than to feel his hands on her, and she sighed with bliss when his trembling fingers reached out and cupped the soft flesh of her breasts carefully. His thumbs brushed over her hardened nipples and one hand drifted between her legs to course over the wetness there. As soon as his rough fingertips made contact with her drenched folds, Talia bucked her hips toward him and gasped.

"Ungh…" Bane seemed to be struggling to stay quiet, to control himself, and he urged Talia back onto the bed against the pillows. He hovered atop her, looking hungrier than ever.

"Do you want… to be behind me?" Talia asked awkwardly, for when she'd seen the amorous couple in the act, that had been the way they'd been doing it. The man had thrashed himself against the woman while she was on her hands and knees, and he'd looked to be enjoying himself quite a bit. But Bane shook his head no and stroked Talia's cheek gently.

"I need to see your face," he insisted. "You are far too beautiful for me to not look upon you while I make love to you."

"Lie on your back," Talia urged him, wanting to try something different from the way they'd been positioned the first time he'd taken her, but feeling happy he wanted to see her. "I will be atop you."

Bane's eyes twinkled knowingly, and he nodded. He rolled over until he was on his back, his staff fully upright and visibly throbbing in its aroused state. Talia straddled him and positioned his member at her entrance, meeting his eyes and locking their gazes.

She lowered herself onto him, easing herself down one inch at a time with a hiss until she had taken as much of him as she could into her body. Bane drove his head back against the pillows and panted, clutching at Talia's waist, but he did not take his eyes from hers.

Talia began to move slowly on him, swirling her hips in a figure-eight motion and moving up and down. As Bane's thick length slid in and out of her wet entrance, Talia felt herself beginning to climb a peak. She put her hands over his on her waist and sighed blissfully as she moved a little faster, now able to take him more deeply as her body adjusted to his considerable size. Soon she was pumping her hips up and down quickly atop him, thrusting him in and out of her entrance with vigor. Her eyes were locked on his, and his were on fire with delight.

"Talia," she heard him groan very softly, "I love you."

"As… as I love you," she managed, very much out of breath from how energetically she moved atop him. Suddenly, she felt herself fall off the cliff – her ears grew hot and rang, her toes curled, and her eyes clamped shut against her will. She felt herself compressing around Bane's shaft rhythmically, felt ecstasy wash over her like a mighty wave. She was in a trance of pleasure as she came, and so she barely heard Bane gently say,

"Talia, you need to get off of me now."

She ignored him, bucking her hips through her orgasm, and distantly she heard him beg her,

"Talia –  _please_ … oh…  _oh_ …"

She felt him yank her off of his body and practically toss her onto the mattress beside him, and she was rudely thrust back into reality as the bliss of her climax immediately vanished.

"What…" she began, but when she felt liquid leaking from between her legs and heard Bane curse angrily from beside her, she realized it was too late, that he'd finished inside of her on accident. Talia hurried off the bed and dashed into the bathroom, trying to rid her body of his fluid with a wet washcloth. Even when she felt clean, she knew it was too late to change anything. What was done was done.

She stepped cautiously from the bathroom and saw that Bane had put his clothes back on and was sitting on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry," Talia said quietly. "I couldn't – I was…"

"I know." Bane nodded. "I needed to control myself in the first place. I knew this was a bad time… there are things that exist to keep this from happening… so irresponsible. I'm sorry."

His rambling mutterings only served to bring tears to Talia's eyes, and as she clothed herself she murmured, "You're not the only one accountable, Bane, and, anyway, we don't know that anything's happened."

"Even if there are no obvious consequences," Bane answered, looking up from his hands, " _this_ … making love with nothing to protect you, will  _never_  happen again."

Talia felt her cheeks grow hot, and she nodded her understanding. She picked up the books at the foot of the bed and raised her eyebrows at Bane. "Would you like to help me with this now?" she asked sheepishly.

"I think I've done enough to you this afternoon," Bane said, sounding as if he were in a bit of a shocked daze. He stood from the bed and ambled to the door. "Goodbye, little one."

* * *

**Security**

* * *

In Talia's dream, Bane was sleeping beside her as he had done for years when she was young. His breath came slow and steady through the filters of his mask, and he faced away from Talia in slumber. She slowly traced her fingertips over the long, raised scar that coursed unevenly down his back in a vicious jagged line, the remnant of a wound that had opened him to his core… because of her. His biceps bulged even in sleep, and Talia's lithe little fingers tracked around his muscles lightly, feeling their swollen mass. She sighed and tucked herself against his warm form, unafraid of them being discovered. He would stay until morning, and the next night they would sleep together again, and that was how it would be until the end of time.

But when Talia startled awake, shaken from her dream by the sound of laughter outside her door, she realized that she was alone. The laughter in the hallway passed as the offending initiates went on their way, but Talia frowned as she patted the mattress beside her and felt nothing but cold sheets.

She felt a silent tear course down her cheek as she realized that Bane probably hated her now, that she'd been unable to control herself and that if she'd just  _climbed off of him_  when he'd told her to do so, that she wouldn't have had panic attacks until two o'clock in the morning the way she had. Now she looked over to the clock and saw that it was seven thirty, and realized she had overslept dramatically.

Talia leapt from her bed and started to put on sparring clothes, but then remembered that her father was transitioning her away from fighting-based training to focus her studies on espionage and clandestine work. She decided to wear a brocade tunic and calf-length pants, and she slipped satin shoes onto her feet before brushing her teeth and raking a comb through her hair.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror and thought that she looked dreadful. She'd been crying the night before, more vigorously than she remembered doing, because she'd been afraid. What if she was to become pregnant from what had happened the previous afternoon? It would ruin everything. Her father would send Bane away forever, or worse. In any case, Talia would never see him again.

Talia knew that it was not too late to go to the infirmary and see the doctor about a solution. She'd once heard a female initiate mention a pill the girl had taken only once, a pill that prevented implantation and kept her from getting pregnant in the first place, even though she had been careless. Well, now Talia had been careless. Perhaps the healers could give her the same treatment they had given to the other initiate.

As Talia walked through the halls to the infirmary, she felt herself shaking and her lips felt cold. As she turned a corner, she stared at the ground and ran straight into a solid figure. She looked up to see her father, and she mumbled an apology for running into him. She wondered if he would question her about the alias she was supposed to have developed, or if he would scold her for being out of bed so late in the morning.

Ra's al Ghul crinkled his brow and looked at Talia's drawn and darkened face. "Are you quite all right?" he asked quietly, with all the fatherly concern he seemed to be able to muster.

Talia sighed. "I'm not feeling very well," she admitted. "I was on my way to the infirmary."

"Go," her father commanded. "Rest. You look ill."

Talia nodded, grateful that he was not demanding more of an explanation than that. Ra's al Ghul squeezed her shoulder gently and smiled meekly at her before continuing down the hallway past her, and Talia carried on toward the medical facility. When she arrived, she took a seat upon one of the cots and waited for Lha-mo, the Tibetan woman who had attended medical school in India, to come to her.

"Talia," Lha-mo acknowledged with a kind smile when she stepped up to Talia's cot. There were no other patients in the infirmary yet, for it was too early in the day for anyone to have gotten hurt, but Lha-mo pulled the curtain around the bed just the same. "What brings you in so early?"

Talia swallowed hard. "Can I count on your discretion?" she asked meekly, looking at Lha-mo with fear in her eyes. The doctor smiled warmly and nodded.

"Of course," she assured Talia.

"Even from my father," Talia insisted. "Especially from my father."

Lha-mo sat on the cot beside Talia and nodded knowingly. "What's happened?" she asked, brushing a stray black hair from her face.

"I did something foolish," Talia admitted, feeling tears well to the surface again, "and I'm afraid I may become pregnant."

"When?" Lha-mo asked matter-of-factly, seemingly unfazed by Talia's confession.

"Yesterday afternoon." Talia felt humiliated.

"Well, Talia, you are hardly the first female in this place to be confronted with this problem," Lha-mo assured her with an easy smile. "It's been less than twenty-four hours, so the emergency contraceptive pill will be very effective at this point. You almost certainly will not become pregnant. I would also like to initiate contraceptive treatment with progestogen injections. You only have to get them every three months. It's far more discreet than taking a pill daily or using condoms, but it does not protect against disease."

Talia nodded, feeling more shamed and mortified by the second. She felt like a harlot who needed to be protected from her own base and uncontrollable instincts, and as Lha-mo patted her knee and walked away to retrieve the treatments, Talia fought the urge to dissolve into a mess of tears.

Ten minutes later, she'd swallowed the pill that Lha-mo said would almost certainly prevent any pregnancy resulting from action that already taken place, and had been poked in the hip with a needle and injected with hormones to protect her for the next three months.

Lha-mo explained that she might have some discomfort from the emergency contraception, and that the shot wouldn't be completely effective for a week, but that she needn't worry anymore. If Ra's al Ghul or anyone else asked, Talia had the flu. Talia thanked Lha-mo and shuffled, embarrassed, from the infirmary all the way back to her room.

Talia considered doing the work she'd half-neglected the previous evening. She considered taking the books and notepaper out and refining her alias, learning more about Yemeni culture and dress and dialect, but she could not bring herself to do it. For some reason, she felt acutely depressed, and all she wanted to do was lie in bed.

It was so cold today that the precipitation falling outside her window had turned to sleet, and the cold wind rattled the windowpanes. The tiny radiator in the corner struggled to warm the room, and Talia soon found herself huddled beneath her blankets with an extra quilt on top. Perhaps she truly was ill. Within a few hours of lying in silent, meditative contemplation, Talia began to feel dizzy and nauseated. She reached for her book on Yemeni culture if for no reason than to distract herself from the side effects of the emergency contraception she'd been given by Lha-mo.

She was drifting off to sleep, unable to concentrate on the intricacies of Yemeni hijab traditions, when she heard a gentle knocking on her door. Startled to alertness, Talia mumbled, "Come in."

It was certain to be either her father or Bane, checking in on her, though she certainly hoped for the latter. She didn't think Ra's al Ghul was probably concerned enough with her well being, anyway, to bother coming to her room at lunchtime to see how she was feeling. Talia was quite pleased, therefore, when the door creaked open and Bane stepped into the room.

He shut the door behind him and locked it quietly, his green eyes bearing an expression of deep concern as he beheld the sight of Talia tucked beneath blankets, a book open on the pillow beside her.

"Are you all right?" he asked softly, his gentle words almost unintelligible through his mask. "You were not in the dining hall to eat your morning or noon meals, and I worried that perhaps something was wrong."

Talia wasn't certain how she should feel about seeing Bane right now. He'd left her rather abruptly the day before, and Talia was honestly rather irritated by that fact. Yet, the anxiety in his eyes seemed genuine, and he'd bothered to come now, so she sighed and shut the book.

"I went to the infirmary," she said simply. "Lha-mo gave me a pill to ensure that nothing takes from yesterday. Then she gave me a shot that will protect me for the next three months. It is extremely effective. I feel… unpleasant… now. But relieved, nonetheless."

Bane's eyes softened. "You should not have had to do that," he murmured, moving to ease himself onto the bed with Talia. He slithered beneath the sheets and pulled her body against his, cradling her face in the crook of his neck. Talia could smell the virile tang of salt, sweat, and musk that he always carried, and she shut her eyes and sighed against his warm skin. "I'm so sorry, little one," Bane whispered, petting her head apologetically.

"I'm not angry with you," Talia assured him, and that was mostly the truth. She had felt fear, embarrassment, and disappointment in the wake of their mistake and her subsequent attempt to prevent another such occurrence. She'd not really felt much anger, except perhaps with herself.

She heard clips and hooks being unfastened above her, and she looked up curiously to see that Bane was peeling his mask off of his face and head.

"Don't…" she protested, for she did not want him to be in pain, but Bane tipped her chin up to his ruined mouth and pressed his lips against hers, silencing her protest.

"I love you. I'm sorry," he said again, his voice startlingly clear and unmuffled. His once-perfect and pillowy mouth pushed against Talia's again, and she felt the thick rivers of scar tissue that ran smooth and flat through his lips. She reached her hand up to press her palm against his uncovered cheek, trying to ignore the scars that disfigured him there, too. Guilt coursed through her veins and she tried to shove it away, tried to just take in the fact that he was kissing her.

Talia felt Bane's warm tongue glide over her bottom lip and parted her mouth to let him in, sighing into his kiss blissfully when he dragged his tongue around the roof of her mouth.

His hands tangled themselves in her mahogany curls, desperately clinging to her as if she were a lifeline. Talia's own hands mindlessly drifted beneath the sheets to ghost over the outline of his hardening shaft in his linen pants, but Bane shook his head as he kissed her and groaned in protest. He laced his fingers through hers and pulled her hands up to his shoulders gently.

"Just kiss me," he begged, his voice sounding pained. Talia wondered what agony he was enduring to taste her, so she delved more enthusiastically into their kiss. She wrapped her arms around his back and felt the thick scar that coursed down his spine. She avoided tracing it with her fingertips, as she'd dreamed doing, for she thought that it would make Bane self-conscious.

And, anyway, she could scarcely think, for Bane had moved his mouth to her neck and was suckling gently upon the skin there, nibbling lightly and pushing his tongue against the delicate flesh. Quite against her will, Talia bucked her hips forward in response, pushing herself against the erection he was willfully ignoring. Bane took this as his cue to move his kiss back to her mouth, sensing that he was overwhelming Talia at her neck. When he returned his lips to hers, he pressed them gently against hers a few times, soothing her bruised and swollen mouth with loving kisses that were at once urgent and patient. His thumb brushed the skin under her eye, and he sighed happily against her lips one last time.

Then he reached for his mask with shaking hands, and Talia could tell from the strain in his green eyes that he was in an incredible amount of pain. He trembled as he strapped the contraption back onto his face and began inhaling his painkillers again.

He rotated Talia's body so that she faced away from him, and then he pulled her back toward him, spooning their bodies tightly together. Talia could still feel his arousal, most of the way erect from their impassioned kissing, pressed against her back. She appreciated that Bane was choosing to ignore it at the moment and instead focusing on holding her.

"In a week, you can take me again," she murmured awkwardly, and she heard a sigh through Bane's mask.

"That's not what is important right now. Not at all," Bane vowed, petting her curls with his still-shaking fingers. Talia shut her eyes and relished the sensation of Bane's body against hers, of the feel of his hands on her head… of the meaning behind his words.

"Eventually, my father will send me away on missions, and then I won't see you," Talia mused, after a few moments of silence.

"You'll always come back to me," Bane assured her. "Don't you remember what I promised you years ago, the night before you climbed?"

Talia clenched her eyes more tightly shut against the memory. "Yes."

_"_ _You're going to come with me, aren't you, when I leave this place?"_

_From behind her on the cot, Bane sighed deeply. "The most important thing, little one, is that you make it to freedom."_

_Talia felt a lump grow in her throat, felt her eyes burn with tears, and she shook her head firmly. "I will never leave you."_

_"_ _Don't say things that you can not guarantee," Bane cautioned her, his hand reaching up to pet her shaved hair gently and his lips planting a chaste kiss on the back of her head. "There will be comings and goings, partings and reunifications, but, in the end, Talia, you and I will always be together."_

* * *

**Solitary**

* * *

"Here is the information I will need you to memorize." Ra's al Ghul handed Talia a thick folder. "Your studies in the French language will serve you well in this mission."

Talia opened her mouth, didn't have much to say and realized she must look like a fish, and shut it. She nodded, bewildered, at her father. "I shall begin memorizing the information right away," she affirmed. "When do I leave?"

"Tomorrow," her father informed her. "Likely in the afternoon. Be prepared to leave at any moment."

Talia nodded again, wordlessly, and watched as her father stepped from her room.

Then she dissolved into tears.

So she  _would_  have to leave Bane, and much sooner than she'd anticipated. It had only been a week since he'd kissed her again without his mask on, and here her father was, presenting her with a covert operation already. With shaking hands, Talia opened the folder and began reading about the identity she was to assume for the mission.

It seemed as though she was to go to Paris and take on the persona of Eloise Cadran, a young and fashionable student at the Sorbonne. She was to be studying Modern European History; she would be applying to makeup counters on the Champs-Elysée for part-time employment and would have a residence in a small apartment on the Left Bank.

But of course, Talia had never been to Paris. Though she had heard of the terminology surrounding the city through her studies over the past years, none of it meant much to her as she had no first-hand experience with the area. How was she supposed to be dropped into Paris with no warning and be expected to suddenly look and act the part of a French girl?

Her father had thought of that, and as Talia kept reading, she realized that the character of Eloise Cadran was the daughter of  _Pieds-Noirs_  - French parents born in Algeria prior to independence and repatriated into the South of France after the violent revolution. This would explain Eloise's relative disenfranchisement from French society at large, as well as her attempts at social climbing and her desire to learn more about Paris. Furthermore, it would explain why she had a faint Arabic accent when speaking French.

It was all very complicated, the entire alias, and by late that night, Talia was feeling downright overwhelmed by all of the biographical information she had memorized. There was also the information surrounding the mission itself. It seemed that Talia – Eloise – was to attempt to befriend or otherwise ingratiate herself to a young man at the Sorbonne by the name of Michel Bastogne. He was twenty years old and the son of a shipping magnate. She was to utilize "any means necessary" to find out certain facts from him regarding the relations between his father's company and Chinese shipping operations into France. Talia wondered just what "means" her father meant. Was she supposed to sleep with the young man, or was she supposed to torture him?

Why the relation between French and Chinese shipping bore any importance to Ra's al Ghul… well, Talia had no idea. But she did not think it prudent to question the fundamental purpose of the mission. That was not her place. Her place was to go to Paris, become Eloise Cadran, and find out from this young man in what way his father's company had ties to the Chinese government.

So, that was precisely what she would do.

By the time Talia had finished reading through the folder, her clock said it was one-thirty in the morning. Talia's mind was spinning, and she knew she had no hope of sleep. She rose from where she sat cross-legged on her bed and slipped her jade-colored silk robe on, thinking to herself that it was the same color as the eyes of the man she was sneaking out to see.

Talia pushed Bane's door open gently, and was unsurprised to see him lying awake on his back in bed. His hands were crossed over his abdomen, and his eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Hello," she whispered, and though she could hear him breathing, he said nothing. Talia furrowed her brow and stepped over to the side of his bed. "What's the matter?" she asked.

Bane's head fell to the side until he was staring into her blue eyes. "Your father told me that he is sending you to Paris," he murmured. "Tomorrow."

"Yes. I know," Talia nodded sadly. "I've just received all the information this evening."

"I thought I'd be fine with it." Bane stared back at the ceiling.

Talia chewed her lip as she urged Bane to scoot over and climbed into bed beside him. "But you're not fine with it."

Bane shook his head silently. "I worry for your safety. If you are discovered…"

"Then come with me," Talia urged, but Bane sighed deeply and tapped his mask as if to remind her that it was there.

"I'm not very discreet," he said sardonically.

Talia pulled her body against his, feeling the heat radiating from his bare chest through the silk of her robe. She kissed his collarbone and whispered, "I just want you to make love to me one last time before I leave."

"All right," Bane agreed softly, and he reached a hand over to knife it slowly between the folds of Talia's silk robe and under her camisole until he reached her bare breast. Talia shivered when she felt his rough palm make contact with the soft skin of her chest, and trembled again when he began to stroke the globe of her breast with his calloused fingertips. "One last time," he rumbled, "Before you're gone from me." He turned his body until he was hovering above Talia, looking down upon her with gentleness in his eyes. "And when you come back to me, I shall show you how much I missed you."

His coarse hand fondled her breast rather aimlessly as he breathed deeply, seeming to be trying to inhale her scent through his mask. Talia shut her eyes and tipped her head back against his lumpy pillow, absorbing the feeling of his touch as profoundly as she could.

"I don't want to leave you," she whispered into the darkness, and Bane growled a bit in response, sounding frustrated as his hand migrated down Talia's flat stomach and knifed between her legs.

"You have to go," he murmured. "But you will come back to me."

Talia nodded, her eyes still shut, and gasped a little when she felt his fingertips make contact with her satiny folds. Her little pajama shorts were gently pulled down over her waist as Bane patiently stripped her of what little she wore. Talia cracked her eyes to see him toss the silk robe, camisole, and shorts over the side of the bed and watched them pool on the floor. She shivered a bit in her nudity, and Bane slithered down closer to her and pulled the heavy quilted blankets above them.

Outside his window, Talia could hear the pattering of an icy rain falling, but once Bane enveloped them in the warmth of the blankets and their mutual body heat, Talia's shivering ceased. Bane settled his body beside Talia's, tucking himself close to her, and returned the fingers of one hand to the moist folds between her thighs. He began to massage around the outer lips of Talia's entrance, up to her pelvis bone and back. His other hand swept around her body slowly, his fingertips dancing over her breasts, shoulders, and neck with the lightest touch Talia had ever felt Bane use. All the while, his breath came steadily filtered through his mask, and for a while Talia stared into his shimmering pale eyes with adoration, listening to the mechanical hiss from his mask mingle with the drumming of the frosty rain outside.

The feel of his fingers teasing her entrance, combined with his feathery caresses across her chest and neck, began to feel a bit overwhelming, so Talia shut her eyes again and swallowed thickly. After a moment she began to feel dizzy and only realized why when she heard Bane whisper,

"Breathe, little one."

Releasing the breath she hadn't realized she'd been tensely holding, Talia tried to breathe steadily, filling her lungs in time with the steady sizzle she heard from Bane's mask. As she regulated her breath, Talia felt Bane's hand move from her chest to her face, where he stroked her cheek lightly and traced the outline of her jaw. His fingers began to knead her scalp, sending shivers and tingles down Talia's spine, as his other hand intensified its ministrations between her thighs.

His thumb was stroking her clitoris very slowly, moving in circular motions in one direction and then the other. Meanwhile, his middle finger slowly peeked into her entrance, as if he were asking permission. Talia moaned softly, clenching her eyes more tightly against the slow, steady motions of his hands that were causing her to become more aroused by the moment.

"Please look at me," she heard Bane entreat her, and Talia's eyes fluttered open to see the intensity in his green gaze. His fingertips tightened on her scalp, and his other hand explored her entrance with more vigor. His ring finger entered her, as well, and as his thumb continued to pleasure her nub, Talia could feel her desire mounting.

"I love you," she whispered fervently, reaching out with trembling hands to hold onto either side of Bane's face. She heard him make a little contented noise as her palms pressed onto his cheeks, and his own eyelids flickered as if he were having trouble keeping them open. Bane nodded rather feverishly in agreement with Talia's words, seemingly unable to speak.

Talia let one of her hands drift slowly down Bane's neck and felt the firmness of his chest and hard abdomen, and then pulled at the drawstring of his linen pants. She pushed his pants down and wrapped her little hand around his pulsating length. Upon feeling that there was already a pearl of moisture at its tip, Talia rather lost control of herself. It was all too much – his fingers massaging her scalp, his other hand pleasing her entrance, his evident arousal… it all combined to push her over the ledge.

As her toes curled and her ears rang and her walls clenched around Bane's fingers, Talia collapsed against Bane's body. She buried her face in his neck and stifled her moans as best she could, clutching anxiously at his muscular shoulders as she did in order to keep her voice quiet.

"Shhh… good girl, Talia…" Bane cooed finally, praising her for her self-control as she relaxed against him. He stopped rubbing so vigorously at her scalp and instead petted her hair softly.

"Tell me you love me," Talia begged in a cracked whisper, his searing skin muffling her little whimper.

Bane sighed deeply. "My love for you is deeper than the darkest depths of the ocean, little one," he promised. "I have loved you from the day I saw you and I will love you until the day I die."

With that, he pivoted his body so that he was atop her, though they were both still beneath the warm sanctuary of the blankets. Bane stared into Talia's sapphire eyes with a steely contemplation, his gaze so intense that she couldn't have looked away even if she'd wanted to. She snaked her arms around his neck and slithered her legs around his thick waist. Bane hiked her legs up, urging her knees closer to her chest, and guided himself toward her entrance. As he pushed his solid length into the wet warmth of Talia's body, she felt the urge to clench her eyes shut again.

"Look at me, little one," she heard Bane whisper firmly, and so she opened her eyes and locked herself back into his gaze. His thrusting began slowly, giving Talia's body time to acclimate to his length and girth. Once her body had adjusted to him, his motions became more smooth and regular, like a piston in an engine.

He glided in and out of her over and over and over again, for so long that Talia thought it would never end – not that she wanted it to end. She didn't know when she would see him again, and so she tried to enshrine every second of their lovemaking in her memory. The feel of his skin beneath her hands, the sound of his shallow and quick breaths through the filter of his mask, the glorious sensation every time his enormous member filled her body… all of it was filed away in her mind.

Bane began to shudder above Talia, and she knew he was reaching the pinnacle of his pleasure and could stave off his culmination no longer. He'd done an admirable job of controlling himself, she thought, of pacing himself and keeping himself from thrashing recklessly into her and spilling himself within a few moments. No… he had spent long minutes bringing their bodies intimately together, and now his patient motions had brought them to this result.

Bane's steady breathing transformed into choked gasps as the gliding motions of his hips became ragged and uneven. His biceps shook and his chest heaved, and Talia could feel his thick member twitching inside her body as he released his essence into her. She gripped him more tightly with her legs, pulling him more tightly against her body, and her fingertips lightly stroked between his shoulder blades to comfort him as he came.

She moaned into his neck, quietly and controlled, but thoroughly enthused by the sensations surrounding his climax. Bane sighed heavily and collapsed onto the mattress beside Talia, and she felt his seed leak slowly from her quivering entrance. She caught her breath and smiled weakly, grateful not to be worried about conception in the wake of such a relaxing session of passion.

As she curled her naked body against Bane's, Talia inhaled his musky scent. Bane stroked at her dark curls and whispered,

"I will miss you every day that you are gone."

Talia felt an unwanted tear creep from her eye and drip onto Bane's chest, and she sniffled quietly. She nodded. "And I you," she affirmed.

"Do you know, little one…" Bane mused, his murmur mixing with the gentle sound of rain, "After you climbed from the Pit, after I'd been attacked, before you came back to me… those were the very darkest days of my life and I very sincerely thought that I did not want to live. The only thing that kept me alive was the slight glimmer of hope that one day I might see you again, that you were out there somewhere waiting for me."

"I was out there. I  _was_  waiting for you. As soon as I found my father, I told him we had to go get you," Talia whispered fervently, and Bane chuckled under his breath.

"I know you did," he nodded. "He told me that. Thoughts of you, of what had become of you, kept me alive, Talia. Even today, you are what keeps me alive." He pulled her closer against his body and squeezed her gently. "Keep yourself safe while you are gone from me."

The next evening, Talia settled into her seat aboard a flight from New Delhi to Paris. The red-eye had come after a private plane had taken her to India from Bhutan. The day so far had been such a whirlwind that Talia had scarcely had time to process the fact that she would be gone from Bane for as long as her mission in Paris took to complete.

She was dressed in clothes that were not terribly comfortable for her, if she was honest, but they were impressive nonetheless. She'd changed on the plane from Bhutan, putting on the clothes that had been packed for her to last her until she went shopping in Paris.

Her black taffeta fit-and-flare skirt cinched around her tiny waist. Tucked into the skirt was a long-sleeved, sheer white blouse accented with silver studs. She wore opaque black tights and black suede ankle boots with frighteningly high stiletto heels.

Talia had carefully coiffed her dark curls into place on the airplane. She'd applied matte red lipstick and black liquid eyeliner and three coats of mascara. Large silver stud earrings weighed her earlobes down unpleasantly. Talia sighed as she stared at herself in the mirror in the airplane lavatory, scarcely recognizing herself and wondering if she'd ever get used to the feeling of  _haute couture_. She was glad Bane could not see her like this.

As she settled into her seat on the plane to Paris from India, she noticed the other passengers staring at her, and she wondered if she was doing something wrong. She slid her quilted leather handbag under the place in front of her and situated herself uneasily in her first-class seat. After about five minutes of willing away unwanted stares and curious glances, a dashing man of around thirty walked up and said to Talia in an English accent,

"Excuse me, Miss, but I have the window seat."

"Oh. Of course." Talia rose and let the man into his seat. He slid his briefcase in front of him and settled down, his eyes flicking over to Talia as she resumed her seat. Talia scarcely noticed the handsome brown scruff on his jaw and chin, the way his hair was so carefully unkempt, or his bespoke gray suit. She only noticed these things because she thought they were all very purposefully arranged in order for the man to be noticed.

"Headed to Paris on your own?" the man asked Talia, and she smiled awkwardly and nodded wordlessly, wondering if the long flight would consist of uncomfortable and forced conversation. "I'm on business," the man nodded, as if Talia cared. "Perhaps you could show me around when we get there?"

He grinned at her, rather provocatively, and Talia swallowed heavily. Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than for Bane to be there, for her protector to step in and firmly tell the man that Talia was spoken for and to leave her alone. Talia could easily beat this unwanted suitor into oblivion, but she had to gather courage in order to put on a hardhearted face and ward off his flirtations in a nonviolent manner.

"I'm sorry. I've got a man back home," she said as steadily as she could manage. It was the truth. Talia would spend an undetermined amount of time in the future doing nothing but lying. At least here, in this moment, she was telling the truth. She  _did_  have a man back home. Bane.

"Ah." The Englishman nodded with disappointment in his voice and face. "That's too bad."

He left her alone after that, and Talia used the time to meditate.

When she'd left Bane, her heart had broken, and she was sure his had, too. She'd tried not to let her father see that that was the case, for if Ra's al Ghul were to know how deeply his daughter had fallen in love, then everything was lost. Even so, seeing the look in Bane's eyes as she climbed into the car that was to take her away, Talia was cruelly thrust back to the last time she'd left him.

_Talia sobbed as she pulled herself from one ledge to another, urged on by Bane as the horde of prisoners grew near._

_"_ _Go, little one!" he yelled. "Climb!"_

_Talia reached for the next hold and pulled as hard as she could. Her muscles were weak, but her resolve was strong, and her body heaved its way up onto the perch. She heard a gruesome cry from below and glanced down to see that the crowd of angry men had enveloped Bane and were beginning to tear at him like a pack of wolves. They ripped at his shemagh and Talia saw the look of panic printed on Bane's face. His jade eyes glistened with fear and his mouth twitched with terror._

_Just as a hand snatched at his cheek, Bane was pulled in the other direction by several hands clawing animalistically at his shoulder. Talia, horrified, froze. Bane nodded minutely, urging her to continue._

_"_ _Goodbye," she saw him say to her. She could read the word upon his lips, but his voice was drowned out by the howls and shouts of the mob._

_Talia felt hot tears begin streaming down her cheeks, felt the breath knocked out of her at the sight of Bane being so viciously attacked. She turned and kept climbing, trying to obey her protector. Finally she reached the ledge past which no one had ever made it before. She looked to the next perch and sighed. She glanced down again and realized she could not even see Bane's form among the swarm of kicking legs and swinging arms._

_Filled with rage and resolve, Talia realized that she needed to make it out so that she could bring back help – she needed to find her father, as Bane had told her to do, and get him to come rescue her friend. She stared at the teeming mob below, all of whom were preoccupied with destroying Bane, and she sniffled. She took a step back, and just before she leaped to the final ledge, she whispered,_

_"_ _Goodbye, Bane."_

_Then Talia jumped._


End file.
